text,updated_at,metaphor,created_at,context,theme,reviewed_on,dictionary,comments,provenance,id,work_id
" Painters and Poets never should be fat--
Sons of Apollo! listen well to that.
Fat is foul weather--dims the fancy's sight:
In poverty, the wits more nimbly muster:
Thus stars, when pinch'd by frost, cast keener lustre
On the black blanket of old mother night.
Your heavy fat, I will maintain,
Is perfect birdlime of the brain;
And, as to goldfinches the birdlime clings--
Fat holds ideas by the legs and wings.
Fat flattens the most brilliant thoughts,
Like the buff-stop on harpsichords, or spinets--
Muffling their pretty little tuneful throats,
That would have chirp'd away like linnets.
(cf. pp. 12-13 in 1787 ed.)",2014-03-03 19:52:38 UTC,"""Your heavy fat, I will maintain, / Is perfect birdlime of the brain; / And, as to goldfinches the birdlime clings-- / Fat holds ideas by the legs and wings.""",2005-06-01 00:00:00 UTC,"","",2012-06-27,Beasts,"INTEREST: crazy imagery...
Reviewed 2009-07-31. Went looking for metaphor in Google Books and ECCO, discovered it was first printed in 1787…
FIXED TYPO in C-H (sat/fat in first line).","Searching in HDIS (Poetry); found again searching ""idea"" and ""bird;"" confirmed in ECCO.",14891,5574
" Painters and Poets never should be fat--
Sons of Apollo! listen well to that.
Fat is foul weather--dims the fancy's sight:
In poverty, the wits more nimbly muster:
Thus stars, when pinch'd by frost, cast keener lustre
On the black blanket of old mother night.
Your heavy fat, I will maintain,
Is perfect birdlime of the brain;
And, as to goldfinches the birdlime clings--
Fat holds ideas by the legs and wings.
Fat flattens the most brilliant thoughts,
Like the buff-stop on harpsichords, or spinets--
Muffling their pretty little tuneful throats,
That would have chirp'd away like linnets.
(cf. pp. 12-13 in 1787 edition)",2014-03-03 19:52:06 UTC,"""Fat flattens the most brilliant thoughts, / Like the buff-stop on harpsichords, or spinets-- / Muffling their pretty little tuneful throats, / That would have chirp'd away like linnets.""",2005-06-01 00:00:00 UTC,"","",2012-06-27,"",•I've included twice: Bird and Harpsichord/Spinet,Searching in HDIS (Poetry); confirmed in ECCO.,14892,5574
"Like caterpillars dangling under trees
By slender threads, and swinging in the breeze,
Which filthily bewray and sore disgrace
The boughs in which are bred the unseemly race,
While every worm industriously weaves
And winds his web about the rivell'd leaves;
So numerous are the follies that annoy
The mind and heart of every sprightly boy,
Imaginations noxious and perverse,
Which admonition can alone disperse.
The encroaching nuisance asks a faithful hand,
Patient, affectionate, of high command,
To check the procreation of a breed
Sure to exhaust the plant on which they feed.
'Tis not enough that Greek or Roman page
At stated hours his freakish thoughts engage,
Even in his pastimes he requires a friend
To warn, and teach him safely to unbend,
O'er all his pleasures gently to preside,
Watch his emotions and controul their tide,
And levying thus, and with an easy sway,
A tax of profit from his very play,
To impress a value not to be erased
On moments squander'd else, and running all to waste.
And seems it nothing in a father's eye
That unimproved those many moments fly?
And is he well content, his son should find
No nourishment to feed his growing mind
But conjugated verbs, and nouns declined?
For such is all the mental food purvey'd
By public hackneys in the schooling trade,
Who feed a pupil's intellect with store
Of syntax truly, but with little more,
Dismiss their cares when they dismiss their flock,
Machines themselves, and govern'd by a clock.
Perhaps a father blest with any brains
Would deem it no abuse or waste of pains,
To improve this diet at no great expense,
With savoury truth and wholesome common sense,
To lead his son for prospects of delight
To some not steep though philosophic height,
Thence to exhibit to his wondering eyes
Yon circling worlds, their distance, and their size,
The moons of Jove and Saturn's belted ball,
And the harmonious order of them all;
To show him in an insect or a flower,
Such microscopic proofs of skill and power,
As hid from ages past, God now displays
To combat Atheists with in modern days;
To spread the earth before him, and commend,
With designation of the finger's end,
Its various parts to his attentive note,
Thus bringing home to him the most remote;
To teach his heart to glow with generous flame
Caught from the deeds of men of ancient fame,
And more than all, with commendation due
To set some living worthy in his view,
Whose fair example may at once inspire
A wish to copy what he must admire.
Such knowledge gain'd betimes, and which appears,
Though solid, not too weighty for his years,
Sweet in itself, and not forbidding sport,
When health demands it, of athletic sort,
Would make him what some lovely boys have been,
And more than one perhaps that I have seen,
An evidence and reprehension both
Of the mere school-boy's lean and tardy growth.
(ll. 109-168, pp. 263-5)",2010-01-07 04:58:22 UTC,"""Like caterpillars dangling under trees / By slender threads, and swinging in the breeze, / Which filthily bewray and sore disgrace / The boughs in which are bred the unseemly race, / While every worm industriously weaves / And winds his web about the rivell'd leaves; / So numerous are the follies that annoy / The mind and heart of every sprightly boy, / Imaginations noxious and perverse, / Which admonition can alone disperse.""",2003-12-29 00:00:00 UTC,"","",2009-01-06,"","Hilarious passage -- on masturbation, I take it.",HDIS (Poetry),15026,5615
"Thus mouru'd the youth--'till sunk in pensive grief,
He woo'd his handkerchief for soft relief;
In either pocket, either hand he threw;
When lo! from each a precious tablet flew.
Thus--his sage patron's wond'rous speech on trade!
This--his own book of sarcasms, ready made!
Tremendous book!--thou motley magazine
Of stole severities, and pilter'd spleen!
Oh! rich in ill!--within thy leaves entwin'd,
What glittering adders lurk to sting the mind!
Satire's Museum--with Sir Ashton's lore,
The Naturalist of malice, eyes thy store;
Ranging with fell Virtu his poisonous tribes
Of embryo sneers, and animalcule gibes.
Here insect puns their feeble wings expand,
To speed, in little flights, their Lord's command;
There, in their paper chrysalis, he sees,
Specks of bon mots, and eggs of repartees.
In modern spirit ancient wit he steeps;
If not its gloss, the reptile's venom keeps:
Thy quaintness, Dunning;--but without thy sense,
And just enough of Bearcroft, for offence.",2009-09-14 19:43:01 UTC,"""What glittering adders lurk to sting the mind!""",2006-01-24 00:00:00 UTC,"","",,"","",Searching in HDIS (Poetry),15204,5702
"And thou, O INT'REST! dark, insidious power,
Whose sanction'd arts waste nations in an hour;
Whose mining frauds, more fatal still, destroy
Hope's tender blossom, and the fruits of joy;
Thou, to whom all the coward slights belong,
Thy heart too cruel for a generous wrong,
For fierce Revenge, that fever of the soul,
Hate that defies, and Love that spurns controul,
Or mad'ning Jealousy when Reason bends,
Or Zeal, extravagant to liberal ends,
Thou, who, for noble faults like these, too cold,
Whose vices n'er aspire, but stoop to gold,
That groveling passion of the sordid breast,
Like Aaron's serpent swallowing up the rest;
Theft, rapine, plunder, fraud, and murder, stand,
Fell ministers! to wait thy dire command.
Yes thou, the founder of this impious trade,
Mad'st him a slave, that nature never made,
Tore the poor Indian from his native soil,
And chain'd him down to never-ending toil.
(pp. 15-6)",2011-07-18 20:36:59 UTC,"""Thou, who, for noble faults like these, too cold, / Whose vices n'er aspire, but stoop to gold, / That groveling passion of the sordid breast, / Like Aaron's serpent swallowing up the rest.""",2011-07-18 20:36:06 UTC,"",Ruling Passion,,Animals,"CROSS-REFERENCE: Pope -- ""And hence one Master Passion in the breast, / Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest.""
",Reading,18917,5687
"JACK.
Don't be frighten'd, Mrs. Phoebe! you have nothing to fear: I have seen my error, and thoroughly repent of it.
PHOEBE.
'Tis well you have, Sir.
JACK.
Very true, 'tis a happy reformation-- but who can command himself at all times, Mrs. Phoebe? Where's the man that can do it? I was surpriz'd, taken unawares, passion ran away with me like an unbroke horse: but I have got him under now; I can govern him with a twine of thread.
PHOEBE.
'Tis well you can, Sir.
(IV)",2012-07-05 16:58:36 UTC,"""I was surpriz'd, taken unawares, passion ran away with me like an unbroke horse: but I have got him under now; I can govern him with a twine of thread.""",2012-07-05 16:58:36 UTC,Act IV,"",,Beasts,"","Searching ""passion"" and ""horse"" in HDIS (Drama)",19872,5638
"Thee only, sober Goddess! I attest,
In smiles chastis'd, and decent graces drest.
Not that unlicens'd monster of the crowd,
Whose roar terrific bursts in peals so loud,
Deaf'ning the ear of Peace: fierce Faction's tool;
Of rash Sedition born, and mad Misrule;
Whose stubborn mouth, rejecting Reason's rein,
No strength can govern, and no skill restrain;
Whose magic cries the frantic vulgar draw
To spurn at Order, and to outrage Law;
To tread on grave Authority and Pow'r,
And shake the work of ages in an hour:
Convuls'd her voice, and pestilent her breath,
She raves of mercy, while she deals out death:
Each blast is fate; she darts from either hand
Red conflagration o'er th' astonish'd land;
Clamouring for peace, she rends the air with noise,
And to reform a part, the whole destroys.
(ll. 19-36, pp. 101-2 in Wood)",2012-08-14 13:08:52 UTC,"""Not that unlicens'd monster of the crowd, / Whose roar terrific bursts in peals so loud, / Deaf'ning the ear of Peace: fierce Faction's tool; / Of rash Sedition born, and mad Misrule; / Whose stubborn mouth, rejecting Reason's rein, / No strength can govern, and no skill restrain.""",2012-08-14 13:08:52 UTC,"","",,Animals,"",Reading,19909,5681
"Unconscious therefore of the anguish which preyed upon the heart of her unhappy lover, Emmeline gave her whole attention to Lady Adelina, and she saw with infinite concern the encreasing weakness of her frame; with still greater pain she observed, that by suffering her mind to dwell continually on her unhappy situation, it was no longer able to exert the powers it possessed; and that, sunk in hopeless despondence, her intellects were frequently deranged. Amid these alienations of reason, she was still gentle, amiable and interesting; and as they were yet short and slight, Emmeline flattered herself, that the opiates which her physician (in consequence of the restless and anxious nights Lady Adelina had for some time passed) found it absolutely necessary to administer, might have partly if not entirely occasioned this alarming symptom.
(III, p. 92)",2013-06-14 04:47:19 UTC,"""Unconscious therefore of the anguish which preyed upon the heart of her unhappy lover, Emmeline gave her whole attention to Lady Adelina, and she saw with infinite concern the encreasing weakness of her frame; with still greater pain she observed, that by suffering her mind to dwell continually on her unhappy situation, it was no longer able to exert the powers it possessed; and that, sunk in hopeless despondence, her intellects were frequently deranged.""",2013-06-14 04:47:19 UTC,"","",,Animals,"",Searching in C-H Lion,20660,7439
"""Never,"" said she, ""can I be sufficiently grateful to heaven for having given me such a brother. 'Tis not in words, my Emmeline, to do him justice! He is all that is noble minded and generous. Tho' from the loss of his vivacity and charming spirits, I know too well how deeply my unworthy conduct has wounded him; tho' I know, that by having sullied the fair name of our family, and otherwise, I have been the unhappy cause of injuring his peace, yet never has a reproach or an unkind word escaped him. Pensive, yet always kind; melancholy, and at times visibly unhappy; yet ever gentle, considerate, and attentive to me; always ready to blame himself for yielding to that despondence which he cannot without an effort conquer; trying to alleviate the anguish of my mind by subduing that which frequently preys on his own; and now burying the memory of my fault in compassion to my affliction, he adopts my child, and allows me without a blush to embrace the dear infant, for whom I dare not otherwise shew the tenderness I feel.""
(III, pp. 202-3)",2013-06-14 05:01:39 UTC,"""Pensive, yet always kind; melancholy, and at times visibly unhappy; yet ever gentle, considerate, and attentive to me; always ready to blame himself for yielding to that despondence which he cannot without an effort conquer; trying to alleviate the anguish of my mind by subduing that which frequently preys on his own; and now burying the memory of my fault in compassion to my affliction, he adopts my child, and allows me without a blush to embrace the dear infant, for whom I dare not otherwise shew the tenderness I feel.""",2013-06-14 05:01:39 UTC,"","",,Animals,"",Searching in C-H Lion,20673,7439
"But it was hardly less necessary to own to him part of the truth, than to conceal the rest. Should he suspect that Godolphin was his rival, and a rival fondly favoured, she knew that his pride, his jealousy, his resentment, would hurry him into excesses more dreadful than any that had yet followed his impetuous love or his unbridled passions.
(IV, pp. 102-3)",2013-06-14 05:19:15 UTC,"""Should he suspect that Godolphin was his rival, and a rival fondly favoured, she knew that his pride, his jealousy, his resentment, would hurry him into excesses more dreadful than any that had yet followed his impetuous love or his unbridled passions.""",2013-06-14 05:19:15 UTC,"","",,Animals,"",Searching in C-H Lion,20689,7439