"These will in throngs before my mind intrude."

— Keats, John (1795-1821)


Date
1817
Metaphor
"These will in throngs before my mind intrude."
Metaphor in Context
How many bards gild the lapses of time!
  A few of them have ever been the food
  Of my delighted fancy,--I could brood
Over their beauties, earthly, or sublime:
And often, when I sit me down to rhyme,
  These will in throngs before my mind intrude:
  But no confusion, no disturbance rude
Do they occasion; 'tis a pleasing chime.
So the unnumber'd sounds that evening store;
  The songs of birds--the whisp'ring of the leaves--
The voice of waters--the great bell that heaves
  With solemn sound,--and thousand others more,
That distance of recognizance bereaves,
  Make pleasing music, and not wild uproar.
(ll. 1-14, p. 33-4)
Categories
Provenance
HDIS
Citation
Keats, John. Complete Poems. Ed. Jack Stillinger. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982.
Date of Entry
09/19/2003

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