"Why sent below, a moment or an age, / To act his part on life's oft-trodden stage; / The appetites and passions in his train, / With dignity the drama to sustain"
— Stevenson, William (1730-1783)
Work Title
Place of Publication
Edinburgh
Publisher
Printed by A. Donaldson and J. Reid
Date
1765
Metaphor
"Why sent below, a moment or an age, / To act his part on life's oft-trodden stage; / The appetites and passions in his train, / With dignity the drama to sustain"
Metaphor in Context
No more to thee, at Evening's wish'd return,
While sacred ardours in her bosom burn,
Shall rapt Philosophy her footsteps bend,
Intent on man, his origin and end;
The glories of his intellectual frame,
Transcendent as that Being whence they came;
That point him out, his fetters left behind,
For Heaven and immortality design'd;
His senses, all the wonders of his make,
That of a nature less sublime partake;
Yet not less necessary, as they tend
To one just, sapient, well-adapted end:
Why sent below, a moment or an age,
To act his part on life's oft-trodden stage;
The appetites and passions in his train,
With dignity the drama to sustain;
With dignity, while Virtue over-rules,
And their internal fire excites or cools;
Then steal behind the scene from human eyes,
The gaze of fools, or wonder of the wise:
What renders him with reptiles on a par,
Reason to instinct oft inferiour far;
Or lifts him in the scale of beings high,
Angels his kindred, his retreat the sky,
Fain to secure the harbour of the grave,
Toss'd to and fro on life's tempestuous wave.
Such objects, by thy gloom inspiring caught,
No more rush boundless on her crouded thought.
While sacred ardours in her bosom burn,
Shall rapt Philosophy her footsteps bend,
Intent on man, his origin and end;
The glories of his intellectual frame,
Transcendent as that Being whence they came;
That point him out, his fetters left behind,
For Heaven and immortality design'd;
His senses, all the wonders of his make,
That of a nature less sublime partake;
Yet not less necessary, as they tend
To one just, sapient, well-adapted end:
Why sent below, a moment or an age,
To act his part on life's oft-trodden stage;
The appetites and passions in his train,
With dignity the drama to sustain;
With dignity, while Virtue over-rules,
And their internal fire excites or cools;
Then steal behind the scene from human eyes,
The gaze of fools, or wonder of the wise:
What renders him with reptiles on a par,
Reason to instinct oft inferiour far;
Or lifts him in the scale of beings high,
Angels his kindred, his retreat the sky,
Fain to secure the harbour of the grave,
Toss'd to and fro on life's tempestuous wave.
Such objects, by thy gloom inspiring caught,
No more rush boundless on her crouded thought.
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
At least 2 entries in ESTC (1765).
Original Poems on Several Subjects. In Two Volumes. By William Stevenson (Edinburgh: Printed by A. Donaldson and J. Reid. Sold by Alexander Donaldson, in London and Edinburgh, 1765). <Link to ESTC>
Original Poems on Several Subjects. In Two Volumes. By William Stevenson (Edinburgh: Printed by A. Donaldson and J. Reid. Sold by Alexander Donaldson, in London and Edinburgh, 1765). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
04/14/2006
