work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
4141,"",HDIS (Poetry),2004-07-27 00:00:00 UTC,"The Mind no nobler Wisdom can attain,
Than to inspect and study all the Man:
His awful Looks confess the Race Divine;
In him the Beauties of the Godhead shine:
With Majesty he fills great Reason's Throne,
The Subject World their rightful Monarch own:
His ranging Soul in narrow Bounds contains
All Nature's Works, o'er which in Peace he reigns;
His Head resembles Jove's Eternal Seat,
In which Inthron'd, he sways the Heav'nly State,
And with assembled Gods, consults of Fate:
The feather'd Envoys, all in shining Crowds;
Attend his Throne, and watch his awful Nods:
Catch his Commands, and thro' the Liquid Air
To the low World the Sacred Errand bear:
Just so the Head of Man contains within
The Intellect, with Rays and Light Divine:
The Senses stand around; the Spirits roam
To seize and bring the fleeting Objects home:
Thro' every Nerve and every Pore they pass,
And fill with chearful Light the gloomy Space;
The Heart, the Center of the manly Breast,
Just like the Sun, in lovely Purple drest,
Diffuses all the Liquid Crimson round,
Whence Life, and Vigour, Heat and Strength abound:
And as great Phoebus sometimes rages high,
And scorches with his Beams the sultry Sky:
So when the Heart with Rage, or flaming Ire,
Grows warm, or burns with Love's consuming Fire:
The catching Virals spread the Flames afar.
And all the Limbs the hot Contagion share,
As solid Shores contain the liquid Seas,
Just so the Stomach, a soft watry Mass,
Stagnates beneath and fills the lower Space:
Here, Winds, and Rains, and humid Vapours lie,
And these exhal'd with Heat, all upwards fly:
As mantling Clouds conceal the fickly Sun,
Dissolve in Dew and drive the Tempest down:
So when thick Humours from the Stomach rise,
They damp the Soul, and sprightly Faculties:
Then Night and Death their gloomy Shades display,
Till the bright Spark within, the heav'nly Ray,
Dispels the Darkness, and restores the Day.
",,10646,"","""The Senses stand around; the Spirits roam / To seize and bring the fleeting Objects home: / Thro' every Nerve and every Pore they pass.""",Empire,2013-06-26 17:16:56 UTC,""
4171,"",Searching in HDIS (Poetry),2005-05-04 00:00:00 UTC,"Those which from fair and comely Objects fly,
By their own Smoothness please th'affected Eye:
Thro' the Sight's Pores round little Globules steal,
And the charm'd Senses a strange Pleasure feel.
With secret Joy the Soul it self is seiz'd,
And with th'agreeable Idolum pleas'd.
Which wand'ring from the Eyes by Ways unknown,
O'er the soft Bowels and warm Heart is thrown,
And ming'ling in the Womb the fair Idea's sown.
By which kind Nature models her Design;
With forming Hand she Works each beauteous Line,
And all delightsom Things in the Composure joyn.
But if th'Idola from foul Figures rise,
Their roughness Shocks the Soul, and Wounds the Eyes.
And, as with Spears, which grow from bladed Corn,
Invade the Mind, and make the Senses mourn.
Whence strange Dislike surprizes every Part,
And fills with Horrour the recoiling Heart;
Which, thus Contract, does th'ill-form'd Image throw
Into the Womb, and there th'unpleasing Figure sow.
By which Direction, Nature shapes her Aim,
Distorts the Limbs, or does the Piece Defame
With Features most Deform'd; the weeping Mother's Shame.
And, as we often by Experience find,
If a vile Body cloth as vile a Mind,
The World, which by the Looks does Actions scan,
Will in the Child condemn the future Man.",2013-06-04,10773,•I've included twice: Sowing and Wandering,"""Thro' the Sight's Pores round little Globules steal, / And the charm'd Senses a strange Pleasure feel. / With secret Joy the Soul it self is seiz'd, / And with th'agreeable Idolum pleas'd. / Which wand'ring from the Eyes by Ways unknown, / O'er the soft Bowels and warm Heart is thrown, / And ming'ling in the Womb the fair Idea's sown.""",Inhabitants,2013-06-04 16:12:51 UTC,""
4171,Microcosm,Searching in HDIS (Poetry),2006-01-18 00:00:00 UTC,"Causes remote from our Observance fly,
We have a nobler Object always nigh;
Man, lordly Creature! in whom Beauties meet,
Unnumber'd, and the lovely Frame complete.
Mark the nice Structure, and the wond'rous Art;
How just the whole, how curious ev'ry part.
By the Child's Features we the Parent guess,
And Looks divine an heav'nly Sire confess.
Man amiably Majestick Walks erect,
And from th'inferiour World commands Respect;
Reason curbs Force, and gives to Fury Laws,
And fiercest Creatures to Subjection Aws.
They conscious yield, and own the righteous Sway,
And their just Sovereign passively obey.
Man is the Universe, in little shown,
The scatter'd Beauties here are joyn'd in one,
In him the several Motions are explain'd,
And the great World is in the less contain'd.
For as th'Almighty's Throne is fix'd on high,
(Far from these lower Spheres, and arched Sky)
Where Seraphs, and Cherubic Orders stand,
Attend the Nod, and wait the blest Command;
Then with Angelic Motion swift obey,
And instantly themselves to farthest Worlds convey.
Thus seated in the Brain the reasoning Soul
Exalted sits, and there directs the whole.
At the least Hint the conscious Spirits start;
Loaden with Images from ev'ry part
In branched Tubes the subtle Atoms rome,
And from each Sense bring fresh Advices home.
The Immaterial Mind attends above,
While they inform how outward Objects move.
The God of Light sends down his streaming Rays
On the warm'd Earth, and chears with smiling Days.
And thus the central Heart the Source contains
Of vital Heat, and in its Cavern strains
The bubling Streams, that stretch the swelling Veins.
Still it conveys the swift returning Blood,
And restless thus maintains the circling Flood.
The Sun (when Summer-heats the Spring succeed)
Changes the tarnish'd Verdure of the Mead:
The dry'd up Rills no longer murmuring creep
O'er the smooth Pebbles, and invite to sleep,
But buzzing Insects make an uncouth Noise,
And sulph'rous Vapours thunder in the Skies.
So when the Heart tumultuous Passions move,
If melting in the softer Flames of Love
With quicker Strokes the hasty Pulses beat,
And glowing Cheeks confess the inward Heat:
Or if fierce Rage provoke, and vengeful Ire,
The Eyes then sparkle with unusual Fire:
Ah! soon the Flames their rapid Fury spread,
And colour all with a malignant Red.
Curses and Oaths th'unthinking Wretch repeats,
And the Tongue faulters in half-utter'd Threats.
How like the Earth mix'd with the watry Mass,
Where troubled Seas the slimy Land embrace,
Are Man's less noble Parts, th'inferiour Drain,
Where forc'd the cruder Sediments remain?
Here stagnate Filth, and Acid worthless Lees,
And noisom Heaps from various Foods encrease.
Hence windy Fumes, and sudden Vapours spread,
That swell the Breast, and rack the aching Head,
Till forc'd by stronger Nature to retreat,
They melting fall, and all dissolve in Sweat:
Dispers'd in watry Drops they pain no more,
But work insensibly thro' ev'ry Pore.
And as the Sun by his own Heat exhales
Clouds from the Sea, and Fogs from marshy Vales;
Which (tho' base-born) ambitious higher move,
Prevent the Light, and hide the Worlds above.
So from corporeal Dregs the Mists condense,
And intercept the Messengers of Sense.
Hence the clog'd Spirits their Confinement mourn,
And Reason waits in vain the swift Return.
The clouded Images their March delay,
Till the rouz'd Soul, by a superiour Ray
Breaks thro' the Shade, and urges on the Day.",,10819,•I've included twice: Seasons and Mead
•Rich Passage. REVISIT. — A failed comparison?,"""The Sun (when Summer-heats the Spring succeed) / Changes the tarnish'd Verdure of the Mead: / The dry'd up Rills no longer murmuring creep / O'er the smooth Pebbles, and invite to sleep, / But buzzing Insects make an uncouth Noise, / And sulph'rous Vapours thunder in the Skies. / So when the Heart tumultuous Passions move, / If melting in the softer Flames of Love / With quicker Strokes the hasty Pulses beat, / And glowing Cheeks confess the inward Heat.""","",2013-06-04 20:56:30 UTC,""
4209,Speed of thought,HDIS (Poetry),2003-10-26 00:00:00 UTC,"The trembling Queen (th'Almighty Order giv'n)
Swift from th' Idæan Summit shot to Heav'n.
As some way-faring Man, who wanders o'er
In Thought, a Length of Lands he trod before,
Sends forth his active Mind from Place to Place,
Joins Hill to Dale, and measures Space with Space:
So swift flew Juno to the blest Abodes,
If Thought of Man can match the Speed of Gods.
There sate the Pow'rs in awful Synod plac'd;
They bow'd, and made Obeysance as she pass'd,
Thro' all the brazen Dome: With Goblets crown'd
They hail her Queen; the Nectar streams around.
Fair Themis first presents the golden Bowl,
And anxious asks, what Cares disturb her Soul?
Verse 86. As some way-faring Man , &c.]
The Discourse of Jupiter to Juno being ended, she ascends to Heaven with wonderful Celerity, which the Poet explains by this Comparison. On other Occasions he has illustrated the Action of the Mind by sensible Images from the Motion of the Bodies; here he inverts the Case, and shews the great Velocity of Juno's Flight by comparing it to the Quickness of Thought. No other Comparison could have equall'd the Speed of an heavenly Being. To render this more beautiful and exact, the Poet describes a Traveller who revolves in his Mind the several Places which he has seen, and in an Instant passes in Imagination from one distant Part of the Earth to another. Milton seems to have had it in his Eye in that elevated Passage,
------ The Speed of Gods
Time counts not, tho' with swiftest Minutes wing'd.
As the Sense in which we have explain'd this Passage is exactly literal, as well as truly sublime, one cannot but wonder what should induce both Hobbes and Chapman to ramble so wide from it in their Translations.
This said, went Juno to Olympus high.
As when a Man looks o'er an ample Plain,
To any distance quickly goes his Eye :
So swiftly Juno went with little Pain.
Chapman's is yet more foreign to the Subject,
But as the Mind of such a Man, that hath a great way gone,
And either knowing not his way, or then would let alone
His purpos'd Journey; is distract, and in his vexed Mind
Resolves now not to go, now goes, still many ways inclin'd ------
",,10929,•INTEREST. Reversed metaphor! See explication below.,"""As some way-faring Man, who wanders o'er / In Thought, a Length of Lands he trod before, / Sends forth his active Mind from Place to Place, / Joins Hill to Dale, and measures Space with Space: / So swift flew Juno to the blest Abodes, / If Thought of Man can match the Speed of Gods.""","",2013-06-04 16:27:26 UTC,Book XV
3353,"","Searching ""bond"" and ""soul"" in HDIS (Poetry)' found again, ""chain""",2012-01-06 21:44:34 UTC,"'Tis but the Body that blind Fortunes spight
Can chain to Earth; the nobler Soul doth slight
Her servill Bonds, and takes to Heaven her flight.
",,19397,"","""'Tis but the Body that blind Fortunes spight / Can chain to Earth; the nobler Soul doth slight / Her servill Bonds, and takes to Heaven her flight.""",Fetters,2012-01-12 02:55:23 UTC,""
7535,"",Browsing in EEBO,2013-07-11 15:05:44 UTC,"Learn Wretches; learn the Motions of the Mind:
Why you were made, for what you were design'd;
And the great Moral End of Humane Kind.
Study thy self: What Rank, or what degree
The wise Creator has ordain'd for thee:
And all the Offices of that Estate
Perform; and with thy Prudence guide thy Fate.
(p. 37, ll. 127-133)",,21648,"","""Learn Wretches; learn the Motions of the Mind: / Why you were made, for what you were design'd; / And the great Moral End of Humane Kind.""","",2013-07-11 15:05:44 UTC,""
7536,"",Browsing in EEBO,2013-07-11 15:08:06 UTC,"None, none descends into himself; to find
The secret Imperfections of his Mind:
But ev'ry one is Eagle-ey'd, to see
Another's Faults, and his Deformity.
Say, dost thou know Vectidius? Who, the Wretch
Whose Lands beyond the Sabines largely stretch;
Cover the Country; that a sailing Kite
Can scarce o'reflye 'em, in a day and night?
Him, do'st thou mean, who, spight of all his store,
Is ever Craving, and will still be Poor?
Who cheats for Half-pence, and who doffs his Coat,
To save a Farthing in a Ferry-Boat?
Ever a Glutton, at another's Cost,
But in whose Kithin dwells perpetual Frost?
Who eats and drinks with his Domestick Slaves;
A verier Hind than any of his Knaves?
Born, with the Curse and Anger of the Gods,
And that indulgent Genius he defrauds?
At Harvest-home, and on the Sheering-Day,
When he shou'd Thanks to Pan and Pales pay,
And better Ceres; trembling to approach
The little Barrel, which he fears to broach:
He 'says the Wimble, often draws it back,
And deals to thirsty Servants but a smack.
To a short Meal, he makes a tedious Grace,
Before the Barly Pudding comes in place:
Then, bids fall on; himself, for saving Charges,
A peel'd slic'd Onyon eats, and tipples Verjuice.
(p. 50-1, ll. 46-73)",,21650,"","""None, none descends into himself; to find / The secret Imperfections of his Mind: / But ev'ry one is Eagle-ey'd, to see / Another's Faults, and his Deformity.""","",2013-07-11 15:08:06 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,""
7952,"",Reading; following up on passage in Henry Baker's Medulla.,2014-07-01 20:29:44 UTC,"When God his Mind in meaner things declares,
Should he neglect the Glory of the Stars?
Besides, the World is eager to be known,
Our search provoking still; for rouling on
It shews us all its parts, displays its Light,
And constantly intrudes upon our Sight:
His Face unvail'd, God doth so plainly shew,
That if we will but look, we needs must know:
He draws our Eyes, nor doth our search forbid;
What Powers he hides not, he would not have hid:
Then who can think it impiously bold
To search what we're encourag'd to behold?
Nor think thy force too small, too weak thy Mind
Because to Clay unequally confin'd;
Its Power is wondrous Great; how small a Mass
Of Gold or Gems, exceeds vast Heaps of Brass?
How little is the Apple of the Eye?
And yet at once, he takes in half the Sky:
Nor dreads the disproportion to the Sense,
The Organ small, the Object is immense:
And from the narrow limits of the Heart,
The Active Soul doth vigorous Life impart
To all the Limbs, its Sway the Members own,
Wide is its Empire from its petty Throne.
Man know thy Powers, and not observe thy Size,
Thy noble Power in piercing Reason lies,
And Reason conquers all, and rules the Skies.
Nor must you vainly doubt that Man's allow'd
To know Heaven's mind, since Man can make a God:
A Star new rais'd, the Skie enlarg'd contains,
And Heaven must still encrease whilst Caesar Reigns.
(Book IV, p. 42)",,24119,"","""Nor think thy force too small, too weak thy Mind / Because to Clay unequally confined; / Its Power is wondrous Great; how small a Mass / Of Gold or Gems, exceeds vast Heaps of Brass?""",Metal,2014-07-01 20:29:44 UTC,""
4209,"","Reading Dennis Todd, “The ‘blunted arms’ of Dulness: the problem of power in the Dunciad” Studies in Philolgy 79 (1982), 177-204, 186.",2016-03-01 06:19:40 UTC,"This strong and ruling Faculty was like a powerful Planet, which in the Violence of its Course, drew all things within its Vortex. It seem'd not enough to have taken in the whole Circle of Arts, and the whole Compass of Nature; all the inward Passions and Affections of Mankind to supply this Characters, and all the outward Forms and Images of Things for his Descriptions; but wanting yet an ampler Sphere to expatiate in, he open'd a new and boundless Walk for his Imagination, and created a World for himself in the Invention of Fable. That which Aristotle calls the Soul of Poetry, was first breath'd into it by Homer. I shall begin with considering him in this Part, as it is naturally the first, and I speak of it both as it means the Design of a Poem, and as it is taken for Fiction.",,24851,Heterocosm,"""It seem'd not enough to have taken in the whole Circle of Arts, and the whole Compass of Nature; all the inward Passions and Affections of Mankind to supply this Characters, and all the outward Forms and Images of Things for his Descriptions; but wanting yet an ampler Sphere to expatiate in, he open'd a new and boundless Walk for his Imagination, and created a World for himself in the Invention of Fable.""","",2016-03-01 06:19:40 UTC,Preface