work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
5787,"","Searching ""mind"" and ""line"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-05-11 00:00:00 UTC,"For, vainly think not, tho' the classic school
Of eloquence hath charm'd thy tranced hours,
That, there, the just--the appropriate model claims
Thine imitative labours. Unconstrain'd,
From equity's intrinsic source, (to all
Perspicuous), and the heart's decisions stamp'd
By Nature's seal, and man's primæval laws,
The immortal champions of the forum drew
Their more persuasive numbers. Short their code,
And simple; wedded to no toil austere;
Nor asking many a lustrum, to devote
The midnight lamp to musing. To combine
The quick varieties of thought; to snatch
From elocution all the heightening grace
Of diction; and amuse the million's eye
By each external impulse; this their boast,
This was their aim. No deep immuring pile
(The science of innumerous tomes) opprest
The mental strength elastic; nor perplex'd
By facts from mazy records, the free flow
Of speech, that never hesitating ran
Thro' easy vein. And while (the rare result
Of letter'd art) the precious volume gave
Its treasures to the few--perhaps no more
Accessible, and barr'd from vulgar gaze;
They bade retentive memory on their mind
Impress each image, in distinctive lines
That mock'd erasure. Hence the pleader, bold
In vigorous thought, and trusting to those powers
Which knew no ready refuge in the means
Of foreign aid, unlock'd with nature's key
The secret springs that agitate the soul!",2011-11-24,15441,"","""They bade retentive memory on their mind / Impress each image, in distinctive lines / That mock'd erasure.""","",2011-11-24 19:50:06 UTC,""
5787,"",Searching in HDIS (Poetry),2005-05-16 00:00:00 UTC,"Far other notions of pathetic speech
The speakers of the Roman senate form'd;
Who ne'er essay'd to steal into the heart,
By painting to the feelings. 'Twas not theirs
To touch by imagery, but to move
By sympathetic strokes--to ope the effect
Of each impression on their own warm mind;
Not shew the mental portraiture itself,
By gradual art, thro' fancy's calmer light.
Pure passion dwells not on description's hues;
But ever lives, (and trembles, as it lives),
In indistinctest energies--a look,
A tone, a gesture! Hence, the speaker's soul
Enkindled, spreads its own contagious warmth.
'Tis thus the uncultur'd know the affection's force,
Bias'd by nature to admire! to shake
With agony, with rapture! circumscrib'd
By narrow bounds; nor shap'd to scrutinize
The ideas, whose obscure effect they feel.",,15443,"","The Roman senators ""ne'er essay'd to steal into the heart, / By painting to the feelings""","",2009-09-14 19:43:40 UTC,""
5787,"",Searching in HDIS (Poetry),2005-05-16 00:00:00 UTC,"Far other notions of pathetic speech
The speakers of the Roman senate form'd;
Who ne'er essay'd to steal into the heart,
By painting to the feelings. 'Twas not theirs
To touch by imagery, but to move
By sympathetic strokes--to ope the effect
Of each impression on their own warm mind;
Not shew the mental portraiture itself,
By gradual art, thro' fancy's calmer light.
Pure passion dwells not on description's hues;
But ever lives, (and trembles, as it lives),
In indistinctest energies--a look,
A tone, a gesture! Hence, the speaker's soul
Enkindled, spreads its own contagious warmth.
'Tis thus the uncultur'd know the affection's force,
Bias'd by nature to admire! to shake
With agony, with rapture! circumscrib'd
By narrow bounds; nor shap'd to scrutinize
The ideas, whose obscure effect they feel.",,15444,"","The Roman senators did ""Not shew the mental portraiture itself, / By gradual art, thro' fancy's calmer light. / Pure passion dwells not on description's hues""","",2009-09-14 19:43:40 UTC,""
5787,"",Searching in HDIS (Poetry),2005-06-01 00:00:00 UTC,"Alas! while difficulties such as these
Obstruct the preacher, who would undertake
But with full many a fear, the preacher's task?
Who would attempt, but with a tremulous hope
Misgiving oft, so arduous an emprize?--
Alas! for him, who with rude hand awakes
To solemn numbers the didactic lyre,
What but sincerity, that fearless trusts
To its own conscious feelings, could excuse
These efforts, all too feeble? Yet he grasps,
Tho' weak his powers to execute, the sense
Of what is great and glorious; and, perchance,
Sees, in his art, the principles that form
A perfect model. Nurtur'd in the seat
Of academic ease, he there imbib'd
The love of sacred wisdom; tho' the muse
Of Siloa, uninvok'd, inspir'd not then
His song. But in those avenues that erst
O'erarch'd a BAGOT (proud to embower such worth--
Such virtues in their venerable shade)
There, musing oft on future scenes, he form'd
The prospect of ideal good--to flow
From his impassion'd preaching. Nor unmark'd
His decent fane, nor unreview'd his charge;
That not at distance from his natal spot
Beyond the woody Tamar, fancy trac'd;
And, as she spread the glowing tint, it seem'd
No fairy picture: for young hope reliev'd
With golden rays each figure fancy drew.",,15448,"","""Beyond the woody Tamar, fancy trac'd; / And, as she spread the glowing tint, it seem'd / No fairy picture: for young hope reliev'd / With golden rays each figure fancy drew""","",2009-09-14 19:43:41 UTC,""
7984,"",Reading,2014-07-25 18:20:09 UTC,"Whoever thinks must see that man was made
To face the storm, not languish in the shade;
Action's his sphere, and,for that sphere design'd,
Eternal pleasures open on his mind.
For this, fair hope leads on the' impassion'd soul
Through life's wild labyrinths to her distant goal;
Paints in each dream, to fan the genial flame,
The pomp of riches, and the pride of fame,
Or fondly gives reflection's cooler eye
A glance, an image, of a future sky.
Yet, though kind Heaven points out the' unerring road
That leads through nature up to bliss and God;
Spite of that God, and all his voice divine
Speaks in the heart, or teaches from the shrine,
Man, feebly vain, and impotently wise,
Disdains the manna sent him from the skies;
Tasteless of all that virtue gives to please,
For thought too active, and too mad for ease,
From wish to wish in life's mad vortex toss'd,
For ever struggling, and for ever lost;
He scorns religion, though her seraphs call,
And lives in rapture, or not lives at all.
(pp. 154-155)",,24302,"","""For this, fair hope leads on the' impassion'd soul / Through life's wild labyrinths to her distant goal; / Paints in each dream, to fan the genial flame, / The pomp of riches, and the pride of fame, / Or fondly gives reflection's cooler eye / A glance, an image, of a future sky.""","",2014-07-25 18:20:09 UTC,""
7984,"","Reading Marjorie Nicholson's Newton Demands the Muse (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1946), 108.",2014-07-25 18:22:41 UTC,"Passions, like colours, have their strength and ease,
Those too insipid, and too gaudy these:
Some on the heart, like Spagnoletti's, throw
Fictitious horrors and a weight of woe;
Some, like Albano's, catch from every ray
Too strong a sunshine, and too rich a day;
Others, with Carlo's Magdalens, require
A quicker spirit, and a touch of fire;
Or want, perhaps, though of celestial race,
Corregio's softness, and a Guido's grace.
(p. 158)",,24304,"","""Passions, like colours, have their strength and ease, / Those too insipid, and too gaudy these.""","",2014-07-25 18:22:41 UTC,""
7984,"","Reading Marjorie Nicholson's Newton Demands the Muse (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1946), 108.",2014-07-25 18:23:59 UTC,"Wouldst thou then reach what Rembrandt's genius knew,
And live the model that his pencil drew,
Form all thy life with all his warmth divine,
Great as his plan, and faultless as his line;
Let all thy passions, like his colours, play,
Strong without harshness, without glaring gay:
Contrast them, curb them, spread them, or confine,
Ennoble these, and those forbid to shine;
With cooler shades ambition's fire allay,
And mildly melt the pomp of pride away;
Her rainbow robe from vanity remove,
Each pulse congenial with the' informing mind,
Each action station'd in its proper place,
Each virtue blooming with its native grace,
Each passion vigorous to its just degree,
And the fair whole a perfect symmetry.
(pp. 158-159)",,24305,"","""Contrast them, curb them, spread them, or confine, / Ennoble these, and those forbid to shine; / With cooler shades ambition's fire allay, / And mildly melt the pomp of pride away; / Her rainbow robe from vanity remove, / Each pulse congenial with the' informing mind, / Each action station'd in its proper place, / Each virtue blooming with its native grace, / Each passion vigorous to its just degree, / And the fair whole a perfect symmetry.""","",2014-07-25 18:24:14 UTC,""
5598,"","Reading Marjorie Nicholson's Newton Demands the Muse (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1946), 152-153. Found again in Earl Wasserman, ""The English Romantics: The Grounds of Knowledge""
4:1 Studies in Romanticism (Autumn, 1964): 17-34, 19.",2014-07-25 18:59:07 UTC,"Requires there aught of learning's pompous aid
To prove that all this outward frame of things
Is what it seems, not unsubstantial air,
Ideal vision, or a waking dream,
Without existence, save what Fancy gives?
Shall we, because we strive in vain to tell
How Matter acts on incorporeal Mind,
Or how, when sleep has lock'd up ev'ry sense,
Or fevers rage, Imagination paints
Unreal scenes, reject what sober sense,
And calmest thought attest? Shall we confound
States wholly diff'rent? Sleep with wakeful life?
Disease with health? This were to quit the day,
And seek our path at midnight. To renounce
Man's surest evidence, and idolize
Imagination. Hence then banish we
These metaphysic subtleties, and mark
The curious structure of these visual orbs,
The windows of the mind; substance how clear,
Aqueous, or crystalline! through which the soul,
As thro' a glass, all outward things surveys.",,24306,"","""Shall we, because we strive in vain to tell / How Matter acts on incorporeal Mind, / Or how, when sleep has lock'd up ev'ry sense, / Or fevers rage, Imagination paints / Unreal scenes, reject what sober sense, / And calmest thought attest?""","",2017-01-18 14:52:41 UTC,""