"A prisoner in--Impossible!--I sleep: / 'Tis fancy's coinage; 'tis a dream's delusion."
— Dodd, William (1729-1777)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for C. Dilly, in the Poultry
Date
1777, 1793
Metaphor
"A prisoner in--Impossible!--I sleep: / 'Tis fancy's coinage; 'tis a dream's delusion."
Metaphor in Context
And can it be? or is it all a dream?
A vapour of the mind?--I scarce believe
Myself awake or acting. Sudden thus
Am I--so compass'd round with comforts late.
Health, freedom, peace, torn, torn from all, and lost!
A prisoner in--Impossible!--I sleep:
'Tis fancy's coinage; 'tis a dream's delusion.
(p. 58; cf. p. 77, ll. 69-70 in 1793 ed.)
A vapour of the mind?--I scarce believe
Myself awake or acting. Sudden thus
Am I--so compass'd round with comforts late.
Health, freedom, peace, torn, torn from all, and lost!
A prisoner in--Impossible!--I sleep:
'Tis fancy's coinage; 'tis a dream's delusion.
(p. 58; cf. p. 77, ll. 69-70 in 1793 ed.)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "fancy" and "coin" in HDIS (Poetry); confirmed in ECCO.
Citation
10 entries in ESTC (1777, 1778, 1781, 1783, 1789, 1793, 1794, 1795, 1796).
Text from Thoughts in Prison, in Five Parts, viz. The Imprisonment--The Retrospect--Public Punishment--The Trial--Futurity; By the Rev. William Dodd. To which are added, His Last Prayer, Written in the Night before his Death; The Convict's Address to his Unhappy Brethren; and Other Miscellaneous Pieces: With an Account of the Author, and a List of his Works, 4th ed. (London: Printed for C. Dilly, in the Poultry, 1793). <Link to ESTC>
Compare Thoughts in Prison: In Five Parts. Viz. the Imprisonment. The Retrospect. Publick Punishment. The Trial. Futurity. By the Rev. William Dodd, LLD. To Which Are Added, His Last Prayer, Written in the Night Before His Death: and Other Miscellaneous Pieces. (London: Printed for Edward and Charles Dilly, in the Poultry; and G. Kearsly, at No 46, in Fleet-Street, 1777). <Link to ESTC>
Text from Thoughts in Prison, in Five Parts, viz. The Imprisonment--The Retrospect--Public Punishment--The Trial--Futurity; By the Rev. William Dodd. To which are added, His Last Prayer, Written in the Night before his Death; The Convict's Address to his Unhappy Brethren; and Other Miscellaneous Pieces: With an Account of the Author, and a List of his Works, 4th ed. (London: Printed for C. Dilly, in the Poultry, 1793). <Link to ESTC>
Compare Thoughts in Prison: In Five Parts. Viz. the Imprisonment. The Retrospect. Publick Punishment. The Trial. Futurity. By the Rev. William Dodd, LLD. To Which Are Added, His Last Prayer, Written in the Night Before His Death: and Other Miscellaneous Pieces. (London: Printed for Edward and Charles Dilly, in the Poultry; and G. Kearsly, at No 46, in Fleet-Street, 1777). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
04/14/2005
Date of Review
04/26/2007
