work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
3338,"","Searching ""fancy"" and ""gold"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-06-01 00:00:00 UTC,"When a bar of pure silver or ingot of gold
Is sent to be flatted or wrought into length,
It is pass'd between cylinders often, and roll'd
In an engine of utmost mechanical strength.
Thus tortured and squeezed, at last it appears
Like a loose heap of ribbon, a glittering show,
Like music it tinkles and rings in your ears,
And warm'd by the pressure is all in a glow.
This process achieved, it is doom'd to sustain
The thump-after-thump of a gold-beater's mallet,
And at last is of service in sickness or pain
To cover a pill from a delicate palate.
Alas for the Poet, who dares undertake
To urge reformation of national ill!
His head and his heart are both likely to ache
With the double employment of mallet and mill.
If he wish to instruct, he must learn to delight,
Smooth, ductile, and even, his fancy must flow,
Must tinkle and glitter like gold to the sight,
And catch in its progress a sensible glow.
After all he must beat it as thin and as fine
As the leaf that enfolds what an invalid swallows,
For truth is unwelcome, however divine,
And unless you adorn it, a nausea follows.
(Vol IX, pp. 355-6, ll. 1-24)",,8609,•Compare this industrial scene to that I describe in the entry.,"""Smooth, ductile, and even, [the poet's] fancy must flow, / Must tinkle and glitter like gold to the sight / And catch in its progress a sensible glow.""",Metal,2009-09-14 19:33:40 UTC,I've included the entire poem
5521,"",HDIS,2003-12-15 00:00:00 UTC,"Fierce passions discompose the mind,
As tempests vex the sea;
But calm content and peace we find,
When, Lord, we turn to thee
(ll. 1-4, p. 158)",,14784,"","""Fierce passions discompose the mind, as tempests vex the sea""","",2009-09-14 19:41:55 UTC,""
5522,"",HDIS,2003-12-15 00:00:00 UTC,"Jesus! where'er thy people meet,
There they behold thy mercy seat;
Where'er they seek thee, Thou art found,
And every place is hallowed ground.
For thou, within no walls confined,
Inhabitest the humble mind;
Such ever bring Thee where they come,
And going, take Thee to their home.
(ll. 1-8, p. 167)",,14785,"","Jesus may ""inhabitest the humble mind""",Inhabitants,2009-09-14 19:41:55 UTC,""
5524,"",HDIS,2003-12-15 00:00:00 UTC,"When darkness long has veil'd my mind,
And smiling day once more appears,
Then, my Redeemer, then I find
The folly of my doubts and fears.
Straight I upbraid my wandering heart,
And blush that I should ever be
Thus prone to act so base a part,
Or harbour one hard thought of Thee!
(ll. 1-8, p. 180)",,14787,"",The mind may be veiled in darkness,"",2009-09-14 19:41:55 UTC,""
5525,"",HDIS,2003-12-15 00:00:00 UTC,"No more I ask or hope to find
Delight or happiness below;
Sorrow may well possess the mind
That feeds where thorns and thistles grow.
The joy that fades is not for me,
I seek immortal joys above;
There glory without end shall be
The bright reward of faith and love.
Cleave to the world, ye sordid worms,
Contented lick your native dust!
But God shall fight with all his storms,
Against the idol of your trust.
(ll. 9-20, p. 201)",,14788,"","""Sorrow may well possess the mind / That feeds where thorns and thistles grow""","",2009-09-14 19:41:56 UTC,""
5544,"",HDIS,2003-12-15 00:00:00 UTC,"Nor he alone address'd the wayward fair;
Full many a knight had been entangled there.
But still, whoever woo'd her or embraced,
On every mind some mighty spell she cast.
Some she would teach (for she was wondrous wise,
And made her dupes see all things with her eyes,)
That forms material, whatsoe'er we dream,
Are not at all, or are not what they seem;
That substances and modes of every kind
Are mere impressions on the passive mind;
And he that splits his cranium, breaks at most
A fancied head against a fancied post:
Others, that earth, ere sin had drown'd it all,
Was smooth and even as an ivory ball;
That all the various beauties we survey,
Hills, valleys, rivers, and the boundless sea,
Are but departures from the first design,
Effects of punishment and wrath divine.
She tutor'd some in Dædalus's art,
And promised they should act his wildgoose part,
On waxen pinions soar without a fall,
Swift as the proudest gander of them all.
(ll. 34-55, p. 233-4)",2004-01-25,14819,"•A response to his cousin the Reverend Martin Madan, whose Thelyphthora, or, A Treatise on Female Ruin recommended that a rake become financially responsible for any girl he ruins. Madan's tract challenges the 1753 Marriage Act. Intercourse is by divine ordinance that which makes a marriage (see Exod. xxii. 16 and Deut. xxii. 29). Baird and Ryskamp write, ""Cowper wrote several short poems against Thelyphthora in the course of spring and summer 1780"" (vol. i, p. 502). See also L. Hartley's ""Cowper and the Polygamous Parson"" MLQ, xvi (1955), 137-41.
•The poem is an allegory: Dame Hypothesis is wooed by Airy del Castro.
•The bolded line (and what follows) seems to concern Berkeley's idealism. INTEREST. USE in entry.","The ""passive mind"" may be (merely) impressed by substances and modes",Impression,2009-09-14 19:42:01 UTC,""
5559,"",HDIS,2003-12-15 00:00:00 UTC,"'Tis granted, and no plainer truth appears,
Our most important are our earliest years.
The mind impressible and soft, with ease
Imbibes and copies what she hears and sees,
And through life's labyrinth holds fast the clue
That education gives her, false or true.
Plants raised with tenderness are seldom strong;
Man's coltish disposition asks the thong,
And without discipline the favourite child,
Like a neglected forester, runs wild.
But we, as if good qualities would grow
Spontaneous, take but little pains to sow;
We give some Latin and a smatch of Greek,
Teach him to fence and figure twice a week,
And having done, we think, the best we can,
Praise his proficiency and dub him man.
(ll. 353-69, p. 271-2)",,14848,"•A very Lockean position to take on education? INTEREST. Cross-reference: Locke.
•Baird and Ryskamp point to Job 11:12 for ""coltish disposition""","""'Tis granted, and no plainer truth appears, / Our most important are our earliest years. / The mind impressible and soft, with ease / Imbibes and copies what she hears and sees, / And through life's labyrinth holds fast the clue /That education gives her, false or true.""",Impression,2009-09-14 19:42:05 UTC,""
5559,"",Reading; Text from HDIS (Poetry),2003-12-15 00:00:00 UTC,"Accomplishments have taken virtue's place,
And wisdom falls before exterior grace;
We slight the precious kernel of the stone,
And toil to polish its rough coat alone.
A just deportment, manners graced with ease,
Elegant phrase, and figure form'd to please,
Are qualities that seem to comprehend
Whatever parents, guardians, schools intend.
Hence an unfurnish'd and a listless mind,
Though busy, trifling; empty, though refined;
Hence all that interferes, and dares to clash
With indolence and luxury, is trash;
While learning, once the man's exclusive pride,
Seems verging fast towards the female side.
(ll. 417-430, p. 274)",,14849,"•Though not explicitly about the mind, I've included the lines on stone and polish in the database.","The mind may be ""unfurnish'd"" and listless","",2009-09-14 19:42:06 UTC,""
6370,"","Searching ""soul"" and ""seal"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-04-19 00:00:00 UTC,"""Take the bloody seal I give thee,
Deep impressed upon thy soul;
God, thy God will now receive thee,
Faith hath sav'd thee, thou art whole.""
Grace Divine, &c.",,16842,"","""Take the bloody seal I give thee, / Deep impressed upon thy soul.""",Impressions,2011-06-25 02:57:41 UTC,""
7064,"","Reading. Text from Oxford UP edition of Poems, which uses a 1782 printing as its copy-text.",2011-08-23 15:36:26 UTC,"Thus says the prophet of the Turk,
Good mussulman, abstain from pork;
There is a part in ev'ry swine
No friend or follower of mine
May taste, whate'er his inclination,
On pain of excommunication.
Such Mahomet's mysterious charge,
And thus he left the point at large.
Had he the sinful part express'd,
They might with safety eat the rest;
But for one piece they thought it hard
From the whole hog to be debarr'd,
And set their wit at work to find
What joint the prophet had in mind.
Much controversy straight arose,
These choose the back, the belly those;
By some 'tis confidently said
He meant not to forbid the head,
While others at that doctrine rail,
And piously prefer the tail.
Thus, conscience freed from ev'ry clog,
Mahometans eat up the hog.
You laugh!--'tis well,--the tale apply'd
May make you laugh on t'other side.
Renounce the world, the preacher cries--
We do--a multitude replies,
While one as innocent regards
A snug and friendly game at cards;
And one, whatever you may say,
Can see no evil in a play;
Some love a concert or a race,
And others, shooting and the chase.
Reviled and loved, renounced and follow'd,
Thus bit by bit the world is swallow'd;
Each thinks his neighbour makes too free,
Yet likes a slice as well as he,
With sophistry their sauce they sweeten,
Till quite from tail to snout 'tis eaten.",,19086,"","""Thus, conscience freed from ev'ry clog, / Mahometans eat up the hog.""",Fetters,2011-08-23 21:26:26 UTC,I've included the entire poem