id,comments,provenance,dictionary,created_at,reviewed_on,work_id,theme,context,updated_at,metaphor,text
20387,"",Reading,Inhabitants,2013-06-05 19:37:37 UTC,,7399,"",Night the First,2013-06-05 19:37:37 UTC,"""While o'er my limbs Sleep's soft dominion spread, / What though my soul fantastic measures trod / O'er fairy fields; or mourn'd along the gloom / Of pathless woods; or, down the craggy steep / Hurl'd headlong, swam with pain the mantled pool; / Or scaled the cliff; or danced on hollow winds, / With antic shapes, wild natives of the brain?""","'Tis past conjecture; all things rise in proof:
While o'er my limbs Sleep's soft dominion spread,
What though my soul fantastic measures trod
O'er fairy fields; or mourn'd along the gloom
Of pathless woods; or, down the craggy steep
Hurl'd headlong, swam with pain the mantled pool;
Or scaled the cliff; or danced on hollow winds,
With antic shapes, wild natives of the brain?
Her ceaseless flight, though devious, speaks her nature
Of subtler essence than the trodden clod;
Active, aƫrial, towering, unconfined,
Unfetter'd with her gross companion's fall.
E'en silent Night proclaims my soul immortal:
E'en silent Night proclaims eternal day.
For human weal, Heaven husbands all events;
Dull sleep instructs, nor sport vain dreams in vain.
(ll. 91-106, p. 39 in CUP edition)"
20489,"",Reading,Inhabitants,2013-06-10 19:49:30 UTC,,7407,"",Night the Fifth,2013-06-10 19:49:30 UTC,"""It pleads exemption from the laws of Sense; / Considers Reason as a leveller; / And scorns to share a blessing with the crowd.""","And what says Genius? ""Let the dull be wise.""
Genius, too hard for right, can prove it wrong;
And loves to boast where blush men less inspired.
It pleads exemption from the laws of Sense;
Considers Reason as a leveller;
And scorns to share a blessing with the crowd;
That wise it could be, thinks an ample claim
To Glory, and to Pleasure gives the rest.
Crassus but sleeps, Ardelio is undone.
Wisdom less shudders at a fool than wit.
(ll. 264-273, pp. 123-4in CUP edition)"
20496,"",Reading,Inhabitants,2013-06-10 20:08:03 UTC,,7407,"",Night the Fifth,2013-06-10 20:08:03 UTC,"""Is this the cause Death flies all human thought? / Or is it Judgment by the Will struck blind, / (That domineering mistress of the soul,) / Like him so strong, by Delilah the fair?""","Is this the cause Death flies all human thought?
Or is it Judgment by the Will struck blind,
(That domineering mistress of the soul,)
Like him so strong, by Delilah the fair?
Or is it Fear turns startled Reason back,
From looking down a precipice so steep?
'Tis dreadful; and the dread is wisely placed,
By Nature, conscious of the make of man.
A dreadful friend it is, a terror kind,
A flaming sword to guard the tree of life.
By that unawed, in life's most smiling hour,
The good man would repine; would suffer joys,
And burn impatient for his promised skies.
The bad, on each punctilious pique of Pride,
Or gloom of Humour, would give Rage the rein,
Bound o'er the barrier, rush into the dark,
And mar the schemes of Providence below.
(ll. 417-433, pp. 127-8 in CUP edition)"
20521,"",Reading,Coinage and Court and Inhabitants,2013-06-11 17:21:19 UTC,,7408,"",Night the Sixth,2013-06-11 17:21:19 UTC,"""What wealth in Intellect, that sovereign power, / Which Sense and Fancy summons to the bar; / Interrogates, approves, or reprehends; / And from the mass those underlings import, / From their materials sifted, and refined, / And in Truth's balance accurately weigh'd, / Forms art and science, government and law; / The solid basis and the beauteous frame, / The vitals and the grace, of civil life.""","What wealth in senses such as these! What wealth
In Fancy fired to form a fairer scene
Than Sense surveys! in Memory's firm record!
Which, should it perish, could this world recall
From the dark shadows of o'erwhelming years,
In colours fresh, originally bright,
Preserve its portrait, and report its fate!
What wealth in Intellect, that sovereign power,
Which Sense and Fancy summons to the bar;
Interrogates, approves, or reprehends;
And from the mass those underlings import,
From their materials sifted, and refined,
And in Truth's balance accurately weigh'd,
Forms art and science, government and law;
The solid basis and the beauteous frame,
The vitals and the grace, of civil life;
And, manners (sad exception!) set aside,
Strikes out, with master-hand, a copy fair
Of His idea, whose indulgent thought,
Long, long ere Chaos teem'd, plann'd human bliss!
(ll. 442-461, p. 160 in CUP edition)"
20555,"",Reading,Inhabitants,2013-06-12 15:37:50 UTC,,7411,"",Night the Seventh,2013-06-12 15:37:50 UTC,"""Reason is guiltless! Will alone rebels.""","Still unsubdued thy stubborn heart?--for there
The traitor lurks, who doubts the truth I sing.
Reason is guiltless! Will alone rebels.
What, in that stubborn heart if I should find
New, unexpected witnesses against thee?
Ambition, Pleasure, and the Love of Gain!
Canst thou suspect that these, which make the Soul
The slave of earth, should own her heir of heaven?
Canst thou suspect, what makes us disbelieve
Our immortality, should prove it sure?
(ll. 327-336, p. 187 in CUP edition)"
20556,"",Reading,Court and Inhabitants,2013-06-12 15:39:21 UTC,,7411,"",Night the Seventh,2013-06-12 15:39:21 UTC,"""What, in that stubborn heart if I should find / New, unexpected witnesses against thee? / Ambition, Pleasure, and the Love of Gain!""","Still unsubdued thy stubborn heart?--for there
The traitor lurks, who doubts the truth I sing.
Reason is guiltless! Will alone rebels.
What, in that stubborn heart if I should find
New, unexpected witnesses against thee?
Ambition, Pleasure, and the Love of Gain!
Canst thou suspect that these, which make the Soul
The slave of earth, should own her heir of heaven?
Canst thou suspect, what makes us disbelieve
Our immortality, should prove it sure?
(ll. 327-336, p. 187 in CUP edition)"
20566,"",Reading,Court and Inhabitants,2013-06-12 15:54:23 UTC,,7411,"",Night the Seventh,2013-06-12 15:54:23 UTC,"""The witnesses are heard; the cause is o'er; / Let Conscience file the sentence in her court, / Dearer than deeds that half a realm convey.""","The witnesses are heard; the cause is o'er;
Let Conscience file the sentence in her court,
Dearer than deeds that half a realm convey:
Thus, seal'd by Truth, the' authentic record runs:---
(ll. 501-4, p 191 in CUP edition)"
20594,"",Reading,Inhabitants,2013-06-12 19:40:29 UTC,,7411,"",Night the Seventh,2013-06-12 19:40:59 UTC,"""That tyrant, Hope, mark how she domineers: / She bids us quit realities for dreams; / Safety and peace, for hazard and alarm: / That tyrant o'er the tyrants of the soul.""","""For what?"" (thou say'st:) ""to damp the joys of life?""
No; to give heart and substance to thy joys.
That tyrant, Hope, mark how she domineers:
She bids us quit realities for dreams;
Safety and peace, for hazard and alarm:
That tyrant o'er the tyrants of the soul,--
She bids Ambition quit its taken prize,
Spurn the luxuriant branch on which it sits,
Though bearing crowns, to spring at distant game,
And plunge in toils and dangers--for repose.
If hope precarious, and of things, when gain'd,
Of little moment, and as little stay,
Can sweeten toils and dangers into joys;
What, then, that hope, which nothing can defeat,
Our leave unask'd? Rich hope of boundless bliss!
Bliss past man's power to paint it; Time's, to close!
(ll. 1443-1458, pp. 215-6 in CUP edition)"
22627,"",Reading,Inhabitants,2013-09-02 03:06:05 UTC,,7665,"",Night the Eighth,2013-09-02 03:06:05 UTC,"""Conscience, her first law broken, wounded lies; / Enfeebled, lifeless, impotent to good; / A feign'd affection bounds her utmost power.""","""Is Virtue, then, and Piety the same?""
No; Piety is more; 'tis Virtue's source;
Mother of every worth, as that of joy.
Men of the world this doctrine ill digest;
They smile at Piety; yet boast aloud
Good-will to men; nor know they strive to part
What Nature joins; and thus confute themselves.
With Piety begins all good on earth:
'Tis the first-born of Rationality.
Conscience, her first law broken, wounded lies;
Enfeebled, lifeless, impotent to good;
A feign'd affection bounds her utmost power.
Some we can't love but for the' Almighty's sake:
A foe to God was ne'er true friend to man;
Some sinister intent taints all he does;
And in his kindest actions he's unkind.
(p. 168, ll. 691-706)"