"With my inward eye 'tis an old man grey, / With my outward a thistle across the way."

— Blake, William (1757-1827)


Date
1802
Metaphor
"With my inward eye 'tis an old man grey, / With my outward a thistle across the way."
Metaphor in Context
What to others a trifle appears
Fills me full of smiles or tears,
For double the vision my eyes do see,
And a double vision is always with me.
With my inward eye 'tis an old man grey,
With my outward a thistle across the way.
Provenance
Reading Toulmin's "The Inwardness of Mental Life" in Critical Inquiry 1979 (4)
Theme
Mind's Eye
Date of Entry
09/06/2005

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