work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
4253,"",Searching in HDIS (Poetry),2005-08-29 00:00:00 UTC,"Here, Richard, how could I explain,
The various Lab'rinths of the Brain?
Surprise My Readers, whilst I tell 'em
Of Cerebrum, and Cerebellum?
How could I play the Commentator
On Dura, and on Pia Mater?
Where Hot and Cold, and Dry and Wet,
Strive each the t'other's Place to get;
And with incessant Toil and Strife,
Would keep Possession during Life.
I could demonstrate every Pore,
Where Mem'ry lays up all her Store;
And to an Inch compute the Station,
'Twixt Judgment, and Imagination.
O Friend! I could display much Learning,
At least to Men of small Discerning.
The Brain contains ten thousand Cells:
In each some active Fancy dwells;
Which always is at Work, and framing
The several Follies I was naming.
As in a Hive's vimineous Dome,
Ten thousand Bees enjoy their Home;
Each does her studious Action vary,
To go and come, to fetch and carry:
Each still renews her little Labor;
Nor justles her assiduous Neighbour:
Each--whilst this Thesis I maintain;
I fancy, Dick, I know thy Brain.
O with the mighty Theme affected,
Could I but see thy Head dissected!",2009-01-23,11096,"","""As in a Hive's vimineous Dome, / Ten thousand Bees enjoy their Home; / Each does her studious Action vary, / To go and come, to fetch and carry: / Each still renews her little Labor; / Nor justles her assiduous Neighbour.""",Animals,2013-07-22 14:39:33 UTC,""
4382,"",Searching in HDIS (Poetry),2003-10-28 00:00:00 UTC,"'Tis hard, he cries, to bring to sudden sight
Ideas that have wing'd their distant flight:
Rare on the mind those images are trac'd,
Whose footsteps twenty winters have defac'd:
But what I can, receive.--In ample mode,
A robe of military purple flow'd
O'er all his frame: illustrious on his breast,
The double-clasping gold the King confest.
In the rich woof a hound Mosaic drawn
Bore on full stretch, and seiz'd a dappl'd fawn:
Deep in the neck his fangs indent their hold;
They pant, and struggle in the moving gold.
Fine as a filmy web beneath it shon
A vest, that dazzl'd like a cloudless sun:
The female train who round him throng'd to gaze,
In silent wonder sigh'd unwilling praise.
A sabre, when the warrior press'd to part,
I gave, enamel'd with Vulcanian art:
A mantle purple-ting'd, and radiant vest,
Dimension'd equal to his size, exprest
Affection grateful to my honour'd guest.
A fav'rite herald in his train I knew,
His visage solemn sad, of sable hue:
Short woolly curls o'erfleec'd his bending head,
O'er which a promontory-shoulder spread:
Eurybates! in whose large soul alone
Ulysses view'd an image of his own.
",2013-06-04,11536,•I am creating two entries here: 'Body' and 'Animals',"""'Tis hard, he cries, to bring to sudden sight / Ideas that have wing'd their distant flight.""",Animals,2013-06-04 15:41:57 UTC,""
7407,"",Reading,2013-06-10 19:46:10 UTC,"Or is it feeble Nature calls me back,
And breaks my spirit into grief again?
Is it a Stygian vapour in my blood,
A cold, slow puddle, creeping through my veins?
Or is it thus with all men?--Thus with all.
What are we? how unequal! now we soar,
And now we sink. To be the same, transcends
Our present prowess. Dearly pays the soul
For lodging ill; too dearly rents her clay.
Reason, a baffled counsellor, but adds
The blush of weakness to the bane of woe.
The noblest spirit, fighting her hard fate
In this damp, dusky region, charged with storms,
But feebly flutters, yet untaught to fly;
Or, flying, short her flight, and sure her fall.
Our utmost strength, when down, to rise again;
And not to yield, though beaten, all our praise.
(ll. 216-232, pp. 122-3 in CUP edition)",,20487,"","""The noblest spirit, fighting her hard fate / In this damp, dusky region, charged with storms, / But feebly flutters, yet untaught to fly; / Or, flying, short her flight, and sure her fall.""",Animals,2013-06-10 19:46:42 UTC,Night the Fifth
7408,"",Reading,2013-06-11 21:19:21 UTC,"With this minute distinction, emblems just,--
Nature revolves, but man advances: both
Eternal; that a circle, this a line;
That gravitates, this soars. The aspiring Soul,
Ardent and tremulous, like flame, ascends;
Zeal and Humility her wings to heaven.
The world of matter, with its various forms,
All dies into new life. Life, born from Death,
Rolls the vast mass, and shall for ever roll.
No single atom, once in being, lost,
With change of counsel charges the Most High.
(ll. 690-700, p. 166 in CUP edition)",,20528,"","""The aspiring Soul, / Ardent and tremulous, like flame, ascends; / Zeal and Humility her wings to heaven.""",Animals,2013-06-11 21:19:21 UTC,Night the Sixth
7411,"",Reading,2013-06-12 15:56:04 UTC,"""Know, all; know, infidels,--unapt to know!
""'Tis immortality your nature solves;
""'Tis immortality deciphers man,
""And opens all the mysteries of his make.
""Without it, half his instincts are a riddle;
""Without it, all his virtues are a dream.
""His very crimes attest his dignity.
""His sateless thirst of pleasure, gold, and fame,
""Declares him born for blessings infinite:
""What less than infinite makes un-absurd
""Passions, which all on earth but more inflames?
""Fierce passions, so mismeasured to this scene,
""Stretch'd out, like eagles' wings, beyond our nest,
""Far, far beyond the worth of all below,
""For earth too large, presage a nobler flight,
""And evidence our title to the skies.""
(ll. 506-520, pp. 191-2)",,20567,"","""Fierce passions, so mismeasured to this scene, / Stretch'd out, like eagles' wings, beyond our nest, / Far, far beyond the worth of all below, / For earth too large, presage a nobler flight, / And evidence our title to the skies.""",Animals,2013-06-12 15:56:04 UTC,Night the Seventh
7411,"",Reading,2013-06-12 16:05:56 UTC,"Ye gentle theologues of calmer kind!
Whose constitution dictates to your pen,
Who, cold yourselves, think ardour comes from hell!
Think not our passions from Corruption sprung,
Though to Corruption now they lend their wings;
That is their mistress, not their mother. All
(And justly) Reason deem Divine: I see,
I feel a grandeur in the Passions too,
Which speaks their high descent, and glorious end;
Which speaks them rays of an eternal fire.
In Paradise itself they burnt as strong,
Ere Adam fell, though wiser in their aim.
Like the proud Eastern, struck by Providence,
What, though our passions are run mad, and stoop,
With low terrestrial appetite, to graze
On trash, on toys, dethroned from high desire?
Yet still, through their disgrace, no feeble ray
Of greatness shines, and tells us whence they fell:
But these (like that fallen monarch when reclaim'd)
When Reason moderates the rein aright,
Shall re-ascend, remount their former sphere,
Where once they soar'd illustrious; ere seduced,
By wanton Eve 's debauch, to stroll on earth,
And set the sublunary world on fire.
(ll. 521-544, p. 192 in CUP edition)",,20571,"","""Yet still, through their disgrace [the passions'], no feeble ray / Of greatness shines, and tells us whence they fell: / But these (like that fallen monarch [Adam] when reclaim'd) / When Reason moderates the rein aright, / Shall re-ascend, remount their former sphere, / Where once they soar'd illustrious; ere seduced, / By wanton Eve 's debauch, to stroll on earth, / And set the sublunary world on fire.""",Animals,2013-06-12 16:05:56 UTC,Night the Seventh
7411,"",Reading,2013-06-12 19:17:09 UTC,"""Duty! Religion!--These, our duty done,
""Imply reward. Religion is mistake.
""Duty!--There's none, but to repel the cheat.
""Ye cheats, away! ye daughters of my Pride!
""Who feign yourselves the favourites of the Skies:
""Ye towering hopes, abortive energies!
""That toss and struggle in my lying breast,
""To scale the skies, and build presumptions there,
""As I were heir of an eternity.
""Vain, vain ambitions! trouble me no more.
""Why travel far in quest of sure defeat?
""As bounded as my being, be my wish.
""All is inverted, Wisdom is a fool.
""Sense! take the rein; blind Passion! drive us on;
""And, Ignorance! befriend us on our way;
""Ye new, but truest patrons of our peace!
""Yes; give the Pulse full empire; live the Brute,
""Since as the Brute we die. The sum of man,
""Of godlike man, to revel and to rot!
(ll. 716-734, p. 197 in CUP edition)",,20578,"","""Sense! take the rein; blind Passion! drive us on; / And, Ignorance! befriend us on our way; / Ye new, but truest patrons of our peace! Yes; give the Pulse full empire; live the Brute, / Since as the Brute we die.""",Animals and Empire,2013-06-12 19:17:09 UTC,Night the Seventh
4394,"","Reading; text from C-H Lion. Found again in Marjorie Nicholson's Newton Demands the Muse (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1946), 159.",2013-07-07 19:52:17 UTC,"When Autumn's yellow lustre gilds the world,
And tempts the sickled swain into the field,
Seized by the general joy, his heart distends
With gentle throes; and, through the tepid gleams
Deep musing, then he best exerts his song.
E'en Winter wild to him is full of bliss.
The mighty tempest, and the hoary waste,
Abrupt and deep, stretch'd o'er the buried earth,
Awake to solemn thought. At night the skies,
Disclosed, and kindled, by refining frost,
Pour every lustre on the exalted eye.
A friend, a book, the stealing hours secure,
And mark them down for wisdom. With swift wing
O'er land and sea imagination roams;
Or truth, divinely breaking on his mind,
Elates his being, and unfolds his powers;
Or in his breast heroic virtue burns.
The touch of kindred too and love he feels;
The modest eye, whose beams on his alone
Ecstatic shine; the little strong embrace
Of prattling children, twined around his neck,
And emulous to please him, calling forth
The fond parental soul. Nor purpose gay,
Amusement, dance, or song, he sternly scorns;
For happiness and true philosophy
Are of the social, still, and smiling kind.
This is the life which those who fret in guilt,
And guilty cities, never knew; the life,
Led by primeval ages, uncorrupt,
When Angels dwelt, and God himself, with Man!
(pp. 186-7 in original, cf. pp. 124-5 in Sambrook)",,21494,Checked against original but not corrected.,"""With swift wing / O'er land and sea imagination roams; / Or truth, divinely breaking on his mind, / Elates his being, and unfolds his powers; / Or in his breast heroic virtue burns.""",Animals,2014-07-25 19:09:13 UTC,""
4563,"",Searching in LION,2013-10-25 21:01:57 UTC,"Ye guardian Pow'rs, who make Mankind your Care,
Give me to know wise Nature's hidden Depths,
Trace each mysterious Cause, with Judgment read
Th' expanded Volume, and submiss adore
That great creative Will, who, at a Word
Spoke forth the wond'rous Scene. But if my Soul,
To this gross Clay confin'd, flutters on Earth
With less ambitious Wing; unskill'd to range
From Orb to Orb, where Newton leads the Way;
And view with piercing Eye the grand Machine,
Worlds above Worlds; subservient to his Voice,
Who, veil'd in clouded Majesty, alone
Gives Light to all; bids the great System move,
And changeful Seasons in their Turns advance,
Unmov'd, unchang'd himself. Yet this, at least,
Grant me propitious, an inglorious Life,
Calm and serene, nor lost in false Pursuits
Of Wealth or Honours; but enough to raise
My drooping Friends, preventing modest Want,
That dares not ask. And if, to crown my Joys,
Ye grant me Health, that, ruddy in my Cheeks,
Blooms in my Life's Decline; Fields, Woods, and Streams,
Each tow'ring Hill, each humble Vale below,
Shall hear my chearing Voice, my Hounds shall wake
The lazy Morn, and glad th' Horizon round.
(Bk. IV, ll. 511-535, pp. 102-3)",,23040,"","""But if my Soul, / To this gross Clay confin'd, flutters on Earth / With less ambitious Wing; unskill'd to range / From Orb to Orb, where Newton leads the Way; / And view with piercing Eye the grand Machine, / Worlds above Worlds; subservient to his Voice, / Who, veil'd in clouded Majesty, alone / Gives Light to all; bids the great System move, / And changeful Seasons in their Turns advance, / Unmov'd, unchang'd himself.""","",2013-10-25 21:02:19 UTC,""
7163,"",Reading,2014-05-26 20:18:09 UTC,"Then, Death, so call'd, is but old Matter dress'd
In some new Figure, and a vary'd Vest:
Thus all Things are but alter'd, nothing dies;
And here and there th' unbodied Spirit flies,
By Time, or Force, or Sickness dispossest,
And lodges, where it lights, in Man or Beast;
Or hunts without, till ready Limbs it find,
And actuates those according to their kind;
From Tenement to Tenement is toss'd;
The Soul is still the same, the Figure only lost:
And, as the soften'd Wax new Seals receives,
This Face assumes, and that Impression leaves;
Now call'd by one, now by another Name;
The Form is only chang'd, the Wax is still the same:
So Death, so call'd, can but the Form deface,
Th' immortal Soul flies out in empty space;
To seek her Fortune in some other Place.
(p. 512, cf. p. 821 in OUP)",,23860,"","""Thus all Things are but alter'd, nothing dies; / And here and there th' unbodied Spirit flies, / By Time, or Force, or Sickness dispossess, / And lodges, where it lights, in Man or Beast; / Or hunts without, till ready Limbs it find, / And actuates those according to their kind; / From Tenement to Tenement is toss'd; / The Soul is still the same, the Figure only lost.""",Rooms,2014-05-26 20:18:09 UTC,""