work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
7107,"",Searching in Google Books,2011-10-06 21:31:03 UTC,"FANCY, sportive goddess, hail!
Fleeting as the vernal gale,
Hail! thou dear illusive power
Changing with the swift-wing'd hour;
Now despairing, now reviving,
Now with tenfold vigour thriving,
Now tormenting, now delighting,
Now in midst of battle fighting:
'Tis thine, or to depress or raise
Whilst short-sighted mortals gaze,---
Gaze, at veil'd futurity
Actuated but by thee---
Fancy, place me by the shore,
Where the broken surges roar,
Where old ocean, Terra laves,
With his ever-rolling waves;
In yonder forest's dusky gloom,
Next my vision'd soul entomb;
Near yon mouldering castle's walls
Where the solemn screech-owl squalls,
Where the bat essays his flight,
In the solitary night;---
Then in yonder shady grove,
Let me taste the sweets of love;
Let me visit woven bowers,
Graced with variegated flowers;
The woodbine and the jasmine gay,
With all the various sweets of May.
(pp. 462)",,19252,"","""FANCY, sportive goddess, hail! / Fleeting as the vernal gale, / Hail! thou dear illusive power / Changing with the swift-wing'd hour; / Now despairing, now reviving, / Now with tenfold vigour thriving, / Now tormenting, now delighting, / Now in midst of battle fighting.""","",2011-10-06 21:31:03 UTC,""
7107,"",Searching in Google Books,2011-10-06 21:33:31 UTC,"Wrap me in aerial wing
Whilst thy various powers I sing,
Plunge me beyond mortal sight
In the murky realms of night;
Then direct thy rapid course,
Goddess, with thy wonted force,
Swiftly bear me to the skies
Where the keen-eyed eagle flies,
And with more than mortal might,
Aid my intellectual flight.---
(p. 462)",,19253,"","""Goddess, with thy wonted force, / Swiftly bear me to the skies / Where the keen-eyed eagle flies, / And with more than mortal might, / Aid my intellectual flight.""","",2011-10-06 21:33:31 UTC,""
7107,Flights of Fancy,Searching in Google Books,2011-10-06 21:36:06 UTC," What inspires the poet's song?
What bears his rapid tide along?
What assists his daring flight?
What directs his course aright?
Can Roman or can Grecian lore,
Can arts make mighty genius soar?
No--nature tells each generous heart,
That poesy's undeck'd by art;
Let critics, let pedantic fools,
Establish art and settle rules;
'Tis fancy, powerful fancy wings
The poet's flight whene'er he sings,
Fancy strikes the living lyre,
Fancy sheds poetic fire!
(pp. 402-3)",,19254,"","""'Tis fancy, powerful fancy wings / The poet's flight whene'er he sings, / Fancy strikes the living lyre, / Fancy sheds poetic fire!""","",2013-06-04 15:29:20 UTC,""
7107,"",Searching in Google Books,2011-10-06 21:37:52 UTC," Thus erst, the mighty Shakespeare play'd,
As near Avona's banks he stray'd :---
When his soft melodious strains,
Charm the woods, and charm the plains;
When his elves and sprites are seen,
Tripping o'er the verdant green,
When in the enchanted isle,
Shades the mariners beguile;
In short, in every scene appears,
Fancy, queen of hopes and fears.
When Pope's warbling numbers glide,
Smooth as the unruffled tide;
When the sylphs and sylphids fly,
Thro' the azure of the sky;
When he sports on Windsor plains,
Fancy still unrivall'd reigns.
(p. 403)",,19255,"","""In short, in every scene [of Shakespeare] appears,
Fancy, queen of hopes and fears.""","",2011-10-06 21:40:33 UTC,""
7392,"",Reading at the Folger,2013-05-16 22:37:30 UTC,"Madam,
I shall, perhaps, deserve censure for concealing a name which belongs to so much excellence, but I fear to offend the delicacy of your nature; true merit is ever modest, and your mind, like the sensitive plant at the touch, would shrink from the voice of public celebrity: permit me, however, to lay the Mirror at your feet; look into it, and if you there discover a shade of your own beauties, the surface will be to others sufficiently alluring--but not--my pend can never convey lines of such harmony and points of such perfection--It candour is a virtue, let me say that you temper its honest frankness with the feelings of delicacy; if sensibility is amiable, let me proclaim that the tear of benignity never fell more frequent on the cheek of loveliness; if generosity of sentiment deserves respect, let me assert your superiority over those despicable females who grow stale in sordid adoration of their golden phantom. [...]
(Dedication, pp. iii-iv)",,20207,"","""I shall, perhaps, deserve censure for concealing a name which belongs to so much excellence, but I fear to offend the delicacy of your nature; true merit is ever modest, and your mind, like the sensitive plant at the touch, would shrink from the voice of public celebrity.""","",2013-05-16 22:37:30 UTC,Dedication
7392,"",Reading at the Folger,2013-05-16 22:39:02 UTC,"Behold lovely Westmorland leads the gay throng,
Herself by the graces led calmly along;
With a bosom of innocence easily hit
By the nice ball of humour or arrow of wit;
With a mind which when tragical sorrows appear
Rushes up to her eye, and descends in a tear.
Divine Sensibility! widely impart
Thy fibres of feeling, and live in each heart!
Where Misery stalks in her garment of woe,
Oh! bid the rich flood of humanity flow;
When Sorrow more secret retires to her shed,
Oh! hasten with comforts to pillow her head;--
It is thus we should act thro' life's perilous scene--
Thus Westmorland proves she is really a queen.",,20208,"","""Behold lovely Westmorland leads the gay throng, / Herself by the graces led calmly along; / With a bosom of innocence easily hit / By the nice ball of humour or arrow of wit; / With a mind which when tragical sorrows appear / Rushes up to her eye, and descends in a tear.""","",2013-05-16 22:39:02 UTC,""
7392,"",Reading at the Folger,2013-05-16 22:40:58 UTC,"Behold lovely Westmorland leads the gay throng,
Herself by the graces led calmly along;
With a bosom of innocence easily hit
By the nice ball of humour or arrow of wit;
With a mind which when tragical sorrows appear
Rushes up to her eye, and descends in a tear.
Divine Sensibility! widely impart
Thy fibres of feeling, and live in each heart!
Where Misery stalks in her garment of woe,
Oh! bid the rich flood of humanity flow;
When Sorrow more secret retires to her shed,
Oh! hasten with comforts to pillow her head;--
It is thus we should act thro' life's perilous scene--
Thus Westmorland proves she is really a queen.",,20209,"","""Divine Sensibility! widely impart / Thy fibres of feeling, and live in each heart!""",Inhabitants,2013-05-16 22:40:58 UTC,""
7392,"",Reading in the Folger,2013-05-16 22:42:10 UTC,"[...] Nay, this wonderful scene--this terrestrial ball--
Absorb'd in one mass of confusion shall fall!--
But a truce with reflections so pondrously sage,
My subject is light--let me speak of the stage;
Let the tablet of memory faithfully name
Some sons of drama who breathe but in fame,
Nay more--let me follow the delicate clue,
And give to the living the praise that is due;
I touch but on heroes--the rest may retire,
And exist in a puff till a puff, they expire.
(p. 12)",,20210,"","""My subject is light--let me speak of the stage; / Let the tablet of memory faithfully name / Some sons of drama who breathe but in fame, / Nay more--let me follow the delicate clue, / And give to the living the praise that is due.""",Writing,2013-05-16 22:42:10 UTC,""
7937,"",Searching in Google Books,2014-06-19 22:03:44 UTC,"[...] The apartment which he has seen must have been brilliantly lighted, for he said he was dazzled with its splendour. And be assured, that I have certainly guessed, so to speak, what it is he has attempted to describe. Now, my friend, this extravagant luxury characterises the palaces of Persia. He was carried to Persia, and brought back in one night then, said Chebib. My dear landlord, replied Giafar, if your son is decreed to contract a marriage, from which a certain portion of the earth will derive advantage ; when heaven interferes, distance vanishes in a moment. Omar was besieging Aleppo, while Fatme, his wife, was kneeling at the evening prayers at Medina: O my God, cried she, after they were finished, could I now be in the arms of my husband! Scarcely had she formed the wish, when she was instantly carried to him, by the two angels whom she had saluted on the right hand, and on the left, before she began her prayer. Take courage, my dear friend: Heaven has wrought many miracles in my favour; and, as you have been one of its principal instruments with regard to me, though, for the trial of your virtue, obstacles seem allowed to stand in the way of your happiness, be assured that your star will shine with a brighter lustre, when it has emerged from these little clouds. Every thing encourages me on your account, while my own soul, tormented by an unlucky passion, has entirely lost its balance.
(I, p. 517)",,24054,"","""Every thing encourages me on your account, while my own soul, tormented by an unlucky passion, has entirely lost its balance.""","",2014-06-19 22:03:44 UTC,""
7943,"",Reading at the British Library,2014-06-20 19:02:27 UTC,"He must divest his mind of every care and anxiety, of every intruding thought and thing, except the person before him. His mind must be calm and placid as a summer's evening, and his body in an attitude of ease.
(pp. 5-6)",,24068,"","""His mind must be calm and placid as a summer's evening, and his body in an attitude of ease.""","",2014-06-20 19:02:27 UTC,""