"Fond Fancy's eye, / That inly gives locality and form / To what she prizes best, full oft pervades / Those hidden caverns, where pale chrysolites, / And glittering spars dart a mysterious gleam / Of inborn lustre, from the garish day / Unborrow'd."

— Mason, William (1725-1797)


Date
1772-1781
Metaphor
"Fond Fancy's eye, / That inly gives locality and form / To what she prizes best, full oft pervades / Those hidden caverns, where pale chrysolites, / And glittering spars dart a mysterious gleam / Of inborn lustre, from the garish day / Unborrow'd."
Metaphor in Context
And thou hast cause for triumph! Kings themselves,
With all a nation's wealth, an army's toil,
If Nature frown averse, shall ne'er achieve
Such wonders: Nature's was the glorious gift;
Thy art her menial handmaid. Listening youths!
To whose ingenuous hearts I still address
The friendly strain, from such severe attempt
Let Prudence warn you. Turn to this clear rill,
Which, while I bid your bold ambition cease,
Runs murmuring at my side: O'er many a rood
Your skill may lead the wanderer; many a mound
Of pebbles raise, to fret her in her course
Impatient: louder then will be her song:
For she will 'plain, and gurgle, as she goes,
As does the widow'd ring-dove. Take, vain Pomp!
Thy lakes, thy long canals, thy trim cascades,
Beyond them all true taste will dearly prize
This little dimpling treasure. Mark the cleft,
Through which she bursts to day. Behind that rock
A Naiad dwells: Lineia is her name;
And she has sisters in contiguous cells,
Who never saw the sun. Fond Fancy's eye,
That inly gives locality and form
To what she prizes best, full oft pervades
Those hidden caverns, where pale chrysolites,
And glittering spars dart a mysterious gleam
Of inborn lustre, from the garish day
Unborrow'd.
There, by the wild Goddess led,
Oft have I seen them bending o'er their urns,
Chaunting alternate airs of Dorian mood,
While smooth they comb'd their moist cerulean locks
With shells of living pearl. Yes, let me own,
To these, or classic deities like these,
From very childhood was I prone to pay
Harmless idolatry. My infant eyes
First open'd on that bleak and boist'rous shore,
Where Humber weds the nymphs of Trent and Ouse
To His, and Ocean's Tritons: thence full soon
My youth retir'd, and left the busy strand
To Commerce and to Care. In Margaret's grove,
Beneath whose time-worn shade old Camus sleeps,
Was next my tranquil station: Science there
Sat musing; and to those that lov'd the lore
Pointed, with mystic wand, to truths involv'd
In geometric symbols, scorning those,
Perchance too much, who woo'd the thriftless muse.
Here, though in warbling whisper oft I breath'd
The lay, were wanting, what young Fancy deems
The life-springs of her being, rocks, and caves,
And huddling brooks, and torrent-falls divine.
In quest of these, at Summer's vacant hour,
Pleas'd would I stray, when in a northern vale,
So chance ordain'd, a Naiad sad I found
Robb'd of her silver vase; I sooth'd the nymph
With song of sympathy, and curst the fiend
Who stole the gift of Thetis. Hence the cause
Why, favour'd by the blue-ey'd sisterhood,
They sooth with songs my solitary ear.
(Book III)
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Books issued separately and then collected in 1781. First book in 1772, second in 1777, third in 1779. All four printed together in The English Garden: A Poem. In Four Books (York: Printed by A. Ward, 1781). <Link to ECCO>

13 entries in ESTC (1772, 1777, 1778, 1779, 1781, 1782, 1783, 1786).

Text from The Works of William Mason, 4 vols. (London: Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1811), I, 201ff. <Link to vol. I in Google Books>
Theme
Mind's Eye
Date of Entry
06/28/2005

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.