work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context 4727,Will-o'-the-Wisp (Ignis Fatuus),HDIS (Poetry),2003-09-29 00:00:00 UTC,"Then he: Great Tamer of all human art!
First in my care, and ever at my heart;
Dulness! whose good old cause I yet defend,
With whom my Muse began, with whom shall end;
E'er since Sir Fopling's Periwig was Praise,
To the last honours of the Butt and Bays:
O thou! of Bus'ness the directing soul!
To this our head like byass to the bowl,
Which, as more pond'rous, made its aim more true,
Obliquely wadling to the mark in view:
O! ever gracious to perplex'd mankind,
Still spread a healing mist before the mind ;
And lest we err by Wit's wild dancing light,
Secure us kindly in our native night
.
Or, if to Wit a coxcomb make pretence,
Guard the sure barrier between that and Sense;
Or quite unravel all the reas'ning thread,
And hang some curious cobweb in its stead!
As, forc'd from wind-guns, lead itself can fly,
And pond'rous slugs cut swiftly thro the sky;
As clocks to weight their nimble motion owe,
The wheels above urg'd by the load below:
Me Emptiness, and Dulness could inspire,
And were my Elasticity, and Fire.
",2003-10-23,12469,"•I've neglected ""Wit"" which deserves its own entry.
•I've split this into two entries: 'Weather': 'Mist' and 'Optics': 'Light'
• Going back through and putting in Ignis-Fatuus. Combined entries and deleted duplicate.","""Still spread a healing mist before the mind; / And lest we err by Wit's wild dancing light, / Secure us kindly in our native night.""","",2011-05-20 17:06:22 UTC,""