work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
5782,Inner and Outer,"Searching ""fancy"" and ""court"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2004-08-22 00:00:00 UTC,"O'erbreath'd we come where, 'twixt impending hills,
Ran the joint current of two gurgling rills;
On either hand, adown each fearful steep,
Hung forth the shaggy horrors, dark and deep:
Here, thro' brown umbrage, glow'd the vivid green,
And headlong slopes, and winding paths between;
Growth above many a growth, tall trees arose,
The tops of these scarce veil'd the roots of those;
A winding court where wandering fancy walk'd
And to herself responsive Echo talk'd.
",,15428,•INTEREST. Metaphor of mind is here exterior?,"""The tops of these scarce veil'd the roots of those; / A winding court where wandering fancy walk'd / And to herself responsive Echo talk'd.""",Inhabitants,2013-06-04 16:48:01 UTC,""
5960,"",Reading,2003-07-21 00:00:00 UTC,"Let me see: they tell me this is Monday night. Only three days yet to come! If thus restless to day; if my heart thus bounds till its mansion scarcely hold it, what must be my state tomorrow! What next day! What as the hour hastens on; as the sun descends; as my hand touches her in sign of wedded unity, of love without interval; of concord without end.
I must quell these tumults. They will disable me else. They will wear out all my strength. They will drain away life itself. But who could have thought! So soon! Not three months since I first set eyes upon her. Not three weeks since our plighted love, and only three days to terminate suspense and give me all.
I must compel myself to be quiet: to sleep. I must find some refuge from anticipations so excruciating. All extremes are agonies. A joy like this is too big for this narrow tenement. I must thrust it forth; I must bar and bolt it out for a time, or these frail walls will burst asunder. The pen is a pacifyer. It checks the mind's career; it circumscribes her wanderings. It traces out, and compels us to adhere to one path. It ever was my friend. Often has it blunted my vexations; hushed my stormy passions; turned my peevishness to soothing; my fierce revenge to heart-dissolving pity.
(Part II, chapter 23, p. 605; cf. pp. 207-8 in 1800 ed.)",,15853,"•:The beginning of the end. Mervyn to marry. Great stuff about the pen and mental control. (See Clarissa.)
•I've included twice: Wandering and Pen
•The ""all"" of the wedding night had me supposing that Brown would have us think that more than Mervyn's joy must thrust forth. Hints of masturbation?
•Note the heart's mansion and the mind's career.
•A writing or a landscape metaphor? — revised as MOTION.","""The pen is a pacifyer. It checks the mind's career; it circumscribes her wanderings.""",Inhabitants and Writing,2014-10-05 16:51:30 UTC,"Part II, Chapter 23"
5990,"",HDIS (Poetry),2003-12-30 00:00:00 UTC,"Ah, how the human mind wearies herself
With her own wanderings, and, involved in gloom
Impenetrable, speculates amiss!
Measuring, in her folly, things divine
By human; laws inscribed on adamant
By laws of man's device, and counsels fixt
For ever, by the hours that pass and die.
(ll. 1-7, p. 139)",,15925,"•From Cowper's Translations of Milton, 1791-2. First printed in Hayley's The Life, and Posthumous Writings, William Cowper, Esqr., 3 vols. ,1803-4.","""Ah, how the human mind wearies herself / With her own wanderings, and, involved in gloom / Impenetrable, speculates amiss!""",Inhabitants,2013-06-04 17:01:33 UTC,""
6163,Flights of Fancy,"Searching ""imagination"" and ""room"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-08-29 00:00:00 UTC,"Compare Thy works with Heav'n's unerring Word,
And note if nought be sinful, frail, absurd--
Whether its precepts, pure, in every part,
Have mov'd Thy Mind--have influenc'd Thy Heart.
From Reason's dawning, to the recent day,
Did ne'er conception, word, or action, stray?
But every pow'r, and faculty, of Soul,
In every waking moment keep the Whole?
Hast Thou, thro' all that long-protracted length,
Lov'd God with all Thy Heart--Mind--Soul--and Strength?
Hast Thou so manag'd Pow'r, dispos'd of Pelf,
As proves Thou lov'st Thy Neighbour as Thyself?
Ah! Thy proud Buildings publicly declare
What Thy Religion, Love, and Motives, are.
Thy Lawns, Thy Gardens, and Thy Groves, confess,
Thy splendid Furniture--Thy pompous Dress--
Thy crowded Table, and Thy Costly Treat--
Thy brilliant Side-board--and Thy lordly Suite--
Thy public Feastings, and proud Equipage--
All prove what graceless hopes Thy heart engage!
What sensual objects all Thy Soul absorb,
And bind Thy Spirit to this earthly Orb!
Each Passion stir, and stimulate each Lust,
To grasp at emptiness and grapple dust!
Urge on Thy Might, and agitate Thy Mind,
To pounce at shadows, and pursue the wind!
Inflame Affections--whip and spur Thy Will,
For things that ne'er can satisfy, or fill!
Which fetter judgment--rivet Reason's pow'rs,
To what Time terminates, or Death devours!
What Understanding's purest light pervert,
To grope in darkness--grovel in the dirt!
Draw down Ambition from substantial views,
To hunt for empty forms, and fading hues!
Solicit Fancy from celestial flights,
To wander o'er the World for frail delights
And crowd Imagination's rooms, immense,
With what relates alone to Time and Sense!
Faith, still deluded with lov'd Nature's Lies,
And Hope, still eying Earth's deceptive Toys;
Where Charity some cheating trifle spends,
While Folly frustrates Ostentation's ends!",2013-06-04,16311,"•I've included thrice: Crowd, Rooms, Birds
• Reviewed 2009-07-31","""Solicit Fancy from celestial flights, / To wander o'er the World for frail delights / And crowd Imagination's rooms, immense, / With what relates alone to Time and Sense!""",Rooms,2013-06-04 15:23:45 UTC,""
7695,"",ECCO-TCP,2013-09-28 19:58:41 UTC,"Now in strong lines, with bolder tints design'd,
You sketch ideas, and portray the mind;
Teach how fine atoms of impinging light
To ceaseless change the visual sense excite;
While the bright lens collects the rays, that swerve,
And bends their focus on the moving nerve.
How thoughts to thoughts are link'd with viewless chains,
Tribes leading tribes, and trains pursuing trains;
With shadowy trident how Volition guides,
Surge after surge, his intellectual tides;
Or, Queen of Sleep, Imagination roves
With frantic Sorrows, or delirious Loves.
(p. viii)",,22884,"","""With shadowy trident how Volition guides, / Surge after surge, his intellectual tides; / Or, Queen of Sleep, Imagination roves / With frantic Sorrows, or delirious Loves.""",Inhabitants,2013-09-28 19:58:41 UTC,""
7769,"",Reading,2013-11-14 03:49:54 UTC,"III.
""And what (I said) tho' blasphemy's loud scream
""With that sweet music of deliv'rance strove;
""Tho' all the fierce and drunken passions wove
""A dance more wild than ever maniac's dream;
""Ye storms, that round the dawning east assembled,
""The sun was rising, tho' ye hid his light!""
And when to sooth my soul, that hop'd and trembled.
The dissonance ceas'd, and all seem'd calm and bright;
When France, her front deep-scar'd and gory,
Conceal'd with clust'ring wreaths of glory;
When insupportably advancing,
Her arm made mock'ry of the warrior's ramp,
While, timid looks of fury glancing,
Domestic treason, crush'd beneath her fatal stamp,
Writh'd, like a wounded dragon in his gore;
Then I reproach'd my fears that would not flee,
""And soon (I said) shall wisdom teach her lore
""In the low huts of them that toil and groan!
""And conqu'ring by her happiness alone,
""Shall France compel the nations to be free,
""Till love and joy look round, and call the earth
""their own!""
(pp. 15-16)",,23192,"","""And what (I said) tho' blasphemy's loud scream / With that sweet music of deliv'rance strove; / Tho' all the fierce and drunken passions wove / A dance more wild than ever maniac's dream; / Ye storms, that round the dawning east assembled, / The sun was rising, tho' ye hid his light!"" ",Inhabitants,2013-11-14 03:49:54 UTC,""