updated_at,id,text,theme,metaphor,work_id,reviewed_on,provenance,created_at,comments,context,dictionary
2014-07-25 18:12:02 UTC,24295,"In every human breast there lives enshrined
Some atom pregnant with the' etherial mind;
Some plastic power, some intellectual ray,
Some genial sunbeam from the source of day;
Something that, warm and restless to aspire,
Works the young heart, and sets the soul on fire,
And bids us all our inborn powers employ
To catch the phantom of ideal joy.
Were it not so, the soul, all dead and lost,
Like the tall cliff beneath the' impassive frost,
Form'd for no end, and impotent to please,
Would lie inactive on the couch of ease:
And, heedless of proud fame's immortal lay,
Sleep all her dull divinity away.
(p. 153)","","""In every human breast there lives enshrined / Some atom pregnant with the' etherial mind; / Some plastic power, some intellectual ray, / Some genial sunbeam from the source of day; / Something that, warm and restless to aspire, / Works the young heart, and sets the soul on fire, / And bids us all our inborn powers employ / To catch the phantom of ideal joy.""",7984,,Reading,2014-07-25 18:12:02 UTC,"","",""
2014-07-25 18:14:57 UTC,24298,"And yet, let but a zephyr's breath begin
To stir the latent excellence within--
Waked in that moment's elemental strife,
Impassion'd genius feels the breath of life;
The' expanding heart delights to leap and glow,
The pulse to kindle, and the tear to flow:
Strong and more strong the light celestial shines,
Each thought ennobles, and each sense refines,
Till all the soul, full opening to the flame,
Exalts to virtue what she felt for fame.
Hence, just as nature points the kindred fire,
One plies the pencil, one awakes the lyre;
This, with an Halley's luxury of soul,
Calls the wild needle back upon the pole,
Maps half the winds, and gives the sail to fly
In every ocean of the arctic sky;
While he whose vast capacious mind explores
All nature's scenes, and nature's God adores,
Skill'd in each drug the varying world provides,
All earth embosoms, and all ocean hides;
Expels, like Heberden, the young disease,
And softens anguish to the smile of ease.
(pp. 153-154)","","""Strong and more strong the light celestial shines, / Each thought ennobles, and each sense refines, / Till all the soul, full opening to the flame, / Exalts to virtue what she felt for fame.""",7984,,Reading,2014-07-25 18:14:57 UTC,"","",""
2014-07-25 18:17:07 UTC,24300,"And yet these passions which, on nature's plan,
Call out the hero while they form the man,
Warp'd from the sacred line that nature gave,
As meanly ruin as they nobly save.
The' etherial soul that Heaven itself inspires
With all its virtues, and with all its fires,
Led by these sirens to some wild extreme,
Sets in a vapour when it ought to beam;
Like a Dutch sun that in the' autumnal sky
Looks through a fog, and rises but to die.
But he whose active, unencumber'd mind
Leaves this low earth and all its mists behind,
Fond in a pure unclouded sky to glow,
Like the bright orb that rises on the Po,
O'er half the globe with steady splendour shines,
And ripens virtues as it ripens mines.
(p. 154)","","""The' etherial soul that Heaven itself inspires / With all its virtues, and with all its fires, / Led by these sirens to some wild extreme, / Sets in a vapour when it ought to beam; / Like a Dutch sun that in the' autumnal sky / Looks through a fog, and rises but to die.""",7984,,Reading,2014-07-25 18:17:07 UTC,"","",""