id,comments,provenance,dictionary,created_at,reviewed_on,work_id,theme,context,updated_at,metaphor,text
20407,"",Reading,Eye,2013-06-05 21:11:17 UTC,,7400,"",Night the Second,2013-06-05 21:11:17 UTC,"""Warnings point out our danger; gnomons, time: / As these are useless when the sun is set; / So those, but when more glorious Reason shines. / Reason should judge in all; in Reason's eye, / That sedentary shadow travels hard.""","But here, Lorenzo, the delusion lies;
That solar shadow, as it measures life,
It life resembles too: Life speeds away
From point to point, though seeming to stand still.
The cunning fugitive is swift by stealth:
Too subtle is the movement to be seen;
Yet soon man's hour is up, and we are gone.
Warnings point out our danger; gnomons, time:
As these are useless when the sun is set;
So those, but when more glorious Reason shines.
Reason should judge in all; in Reason's eye,
That sedentary shadow travels hard.
But such our gravitation to the wrong,
So prone our hearts to whisper what we wish,
'Tis later with the wise than he's aware;
A Wilmington goes slower than the sun:
And all mankind mistake their time of day;
E'en age itself. Fresh hopes are hourly sown
In furrow'd brows. So gentle life's descent,
We shut our eyes, and think it is a plain.
We take fair days in Winter for the Spring;
And turn our blessings into bane. Since oft
Man must compute that age he cannot feel,
He scarce believes he's older for his years.
Thus, at life's latest eve, we keep in store
One disappointment sure, to crown the rest,--
The disappointment of a promised hour.
(ll. 420-446, p. 62 in CUP edition)"
20417,"",Reading,"",2013-06-05 21:32:16 UTC,,7400,"",Night the Second,2013-06-05 21:32:16 UTC,"""Full on ourselves descending in a line, / Pleasure's bright beam is feeble in delight: / Delight intense is taken by rebound; / Reverberated pleasures fire the breast.""","Wisdom, though richer than Peruvian mines,
And sweeter than the sweet ambrosial hive,--
What is she but the means of happiness?
That unobtain'd, than Folly more a fool;
A melancholy fool, without her bells.
Friendship, the means of wisdom, richly gives
The precious end which makes our wisdom wise.
Nature, in zeal for human amity,
Denies or damps an undivided joy.
Joy is an import; joy is an exchange;
Joy flies monopolists; it calls for two;
Rich fruit, heaven-planted, never pluck'd by one!
Needful auxiliars are our friends, to give
To social man true relish of himself.
Full on ourselves descending in a line,
Pleasure's bright beam is feeble in delight:
Delight intense is taken by rebound;
Reverberated pleasures fire the breast.
(ll. 498-515, p. 64 in CUP edition)"
20421,"",Reading,"",2013-06-06 14:04:54 UTC,,7401,"",Night the Third,2013-06-06 14:04:54 UTC,"""From dreams, where Thought in Fancy's maze runs mad, / To reason, that heaven-lighted lamp in man, / Once more I wake; and at the destined hour, / Punctual as lovers to the moment sworn, / I keep my assignation with my woe.""","From dreams, where Thought in Fancy's maze runs mad,
To reason, that heaven-lighted lamp in man,
Once more I wake; and at the destined hour,
Punctual as lovers to the moment sworn,
I keep my assignation with my woe.
(ll. 1-5, p. 73 in CUP edition)"
20427,"",Reading,Animals,2013-06-06 14:13:11 UTC,,7401,"",Night the Third,2013-06-06 14:13:11 UTC,"""On minds of dove-like innocence possess'd, / On lighten'd minds, that bask in Virtue's beams, / Nothing hangs tedious; nothing old revolves / In that for which they long, for which they live.""","A languid, leaden iteration reigns,
And ever must, o'er those whose joys are joys
Of sight, smell, taste; the cuckoo-seasons sing
The same dull note to such as nothing prize
But what those seasons, from the teeming earth,
To doting sense indulge. But nobler minds,
Which relish fruits unripen'd by the sun,
Make their days various; various as the dyes
On the dove's neck, which wanton in his rays.
On minds of dove-like innocence possess'd,
On lighten'd minds, that bask in Virtue's beams,
Nothing hangs tedious; nothing old revolves
In that for which they long, for which they live.
Their glorious efforts, wing'd with heavenly hope,
Each rising morning sees still higher rise;
Each bounteous dawn its novelty presents,
To worth maturing, new strength, lustre, fame;
While Nature's circle, like a chariot-wheel
Rolling beneath their elevated aims,
Makes their fair prospect fairer every hour;
Advancing virtue in a line to bliss;
Virtue, which Christian motives best inspire!
And bliss, which Christian schemes alone insure!
(ll. 373-395, pp. 82-3 in CUP edition)"
20429,"",Reading,Eye,2013-06-06 14:17:13 UTC,,7401,"",Night the Third,2013-06-06 14:17:35 UTC,"""Through chinks, styled organs, dim Life peeps at light; / Death bursts the' involving cloud, and all is day; / All eye, all ear, the disembodied power.""","Life makes the soul dependent on the dust;
Death gives her wings to mount above the spheres.
Through chinks, styled organs, dim Life peeps at light;
Death bursts the' involving cloud, and all is day;
All eye, all ear, the disembodied power.
Death has feign'd evils Nature shall not feel
Life, ills substantial, Wisdom cannot shun.
Is not the mighty mind, that son of heaven,
By tyrant Life dethroned, imprison'd, pain'd?
By Death enlarged, ennobled, deified?
Death but entombs the body; Life, the soul.
(ll. 448-458, pp. 84-5)"
20436,"",Reading,"",2013-06-06 15:20:29 UTC,,7402,"",Night the Fourth,2013-06-06 15:20:29 UTC,"""And is devotion virtue? 'Tis compell'd: / What heart of stone but glows at thoughts like these?""","And is devotion virtue? 'Tis compell'd:
What heart of stone but glows at thoughts like these?
Such contemplations mount us, and should mount
The mind still higher; nor ever glance on man
Unraptured, uninflamed.--Where roll my thoughts
To rest from wonders? Other wonders rise;
And strike where'er they roll: my soul is caught;
Heaven's sovereign blessings, clustering from the cross,
Rush on her in a throng, and close her round,
The prisoner of amaze! In His bless'd life
I see the path, and in His death the price,
And in His great ascent the proof supreme,
Of immortality.--And did He rise?
Hear, O ye nations! Hear it, O ye dead!
He rose! He rose! He burst the bars of death.
Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates,
And give the King of Glory to come in!
Who is the King of glory? He who left
His throne of glory for the pang of death.
Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates,
And give the King of glory to come in!
Who is the King of Glory? He who slew
The ravenous foe that gorged all human race!
The King of Glory, He whose glory fill'd
Heaven with amazement at His love to man;
And with Divine complacency beheld
Powers most illumined wilder'd in the theme!
(ll. 259-285, pp. 97-8 in CUP edition)"
20439,"",Reading,"",2013-06-06 15:23:40 UTC,,7402,"",Night the Fourth,2013-06-06 15:23:40 UTC,"""The beam dim Reason sheds shows wonders there; / What high contents, illustrious faculties!""","""Man, know thyself!"" All wisdom centres there;
To none man seems ignoble but to man.
Angels that grandeur men o'erlook admire;
How long shall human nature be their book,
Degenerate mortal, and unread by thee?
The beam dim Reason sheds shows wonders there;
What high contents, illustrious faculties!
But the grand comment, which displays at full
Our human height, scarce sever'd from Divine,
By Heaven composed, was publish'd on the cross.
(ll. 484-493, p. 103 in CUP edition)"
20440,"",Reading,"",2013-06-06 15:24:51 UTC,,7402,"",Night the Fourth,2013-06-06 15:24:51 UTC,"""Beyond long ages, yet roll'd up in shades / Unpierced by bold Conjecture's keenest ray, / What evolutions of surprising fate!""","Who looks on that, and sees not in himself
An awful stranger, a terrestrial god?
A glorious partner with the Deity
In that high attribute, immortal life?
If a God bleeds, he bleeds not for a worm:
I gaze, and, as I gaze, my mounting soul
Catches strange fire, Eternity! at thee;
And drops the world,--or rather, more enjoys.
How changed the face of Nature! how improved!
What seem'd a chaos, shines a glorious world;
Or what a world, an Eden; heighten'd all!
It is another scene, another self;
And still another, as time rolls along;
And that a self far more illustrious still.
Beyond long ages, yet roll'd up in shades
Unpierced by bold Conjecture's keenest ray,
What evolutions of surprising fate!
How Nature opens, and receives my soul
In boundless walks of raptured thought! where gods
Encounter and embrace me! What new births
Of strange adventure, foreign to the sun;
Where what now charms, perhaps whate'er exists,
Old Time and fair Creation, are forgot!
(ll. 494-516, pp. 104-5 in CUP edition)"
20479,"",Reading,Eye,2013-06-10 19:29:10 UTC,,7407,"",Night the Fifth,2013-06-10 19:29:10 UTC,"""Night is fair Virtue's immemorial friend; / The conscious Moon, through every distant age,/ Has held a lamp to Wisdom, and let fall / On Contemplation's eye her purging ray.""","Night is fair Virtue's immemorial friend;
The conscious Moon, through every distant age,
Has held a lamp to Wisdom, and let fall
On Contemplation's eye her purging ray.
The famed Athenian, he who woo'd from heaven
Philosophy the fair, to dwell with men,
And form their manners, not inflame their pride,--
While o'er his head, as fearful to molest
His labouring mind, the stars in silence slide,
And seem all gazing on their future guest,
See him soliciting his ardent suit
In private audience: all the live-long night,
Rigid in thought, and motionless, he stands;
Nor quits his theme or posture till the sun
(Rude drunkard! rising rosy from the main)
Disturbs his nobler intellectual beam,
And gives him to the tumult of the world.
Hail, precious moments, stolen from the black waste
Of murder'd Time! auspicious Midnight, hail!
The world excluded, every passion hush'd,
And open'd a calm intercourse with Heaven,
Here the soul sits in council; ponders past,
Predestines future action; sees, not feels,
Tumultuous life, and reasons with the storm;
All her lies answers, and thinks down her charms.
(ll. 177-201, pp. 121-2 in CUP edition)"
20480,"",Reading,"",2013-06-10 19:31:04 UTC,,7407,"",Night the Fifth,2013-06-10 19:31:04 UTC,"""All the live-long night, / Rigid in thought, and motionless, he stands; / Nor quits his theme or posture till the sun / (Rude drunkard! rising rosy from the main) / Disturbs his nobler intellectual beam, / And gives him to the tumult of the world.""","Night is fair Virtue's immemorial friend;
The conscious Moon, through every distant age,
Has held a lamp to Wisdom, and let fall
On Contemplation's eye her purging ray.
The famed Athenian, he who woo'd from heaven
Philosophy the fair, to dwell with men,
And form their manners, not inflame their pride,--
While o'er his head, as fearful to molest
His labouring mind, the stars in silence slide,
And seem all gazing on their future guest,
See him soliciting his ardent suit
In private audience: all the live-long night,
Rigid in thought, and motionless, he stands;
Nor quits his theme or posture till the sun
(Rude drunkard! rising rosy from the main)
Disturbs his nobler intellectual beam,
And gives him to the tumult of the world.
Hail, precious moments, stolen from the black waste
Of murder'd Time! auspicious Midnight, hail!
The world excluded, every passion hush'd,
And open'd a calm intercourse with Heaven,
Here the soul sits in council; ponders past,
Predestines future action; sees, not feels,
Tumultuous life, and reasons with the storm;
All her lies answers, and thinks down her charms.
(ll. 177-201, pp. 121-2 in CUP edition)"