"Here, the soft Flocks, with that same harmless Look, / They wore alive, and ruminating still, / In Fancy's Eye; and there the frowning Bull, / And Ox half-rais'd"

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)


Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for J. Millan
Date
1727
Metaphor
"Here, the soft Flocks, with that same harmless Look, / They wore alive, and ruminating still, / In Fancy's Eye; and there the frowning Bull, / And Ox half-rais'd"
Metaphor in Context
Black from the Stroak, above, the Mountain-Pine
A leaning, shatter'd Trunk, stands scath'd to Heaven,
The Talk of future Ages! and, below,
A lifeless Groupe the blasted Cattle lie.
Here, the soft Flocks, with that same harmless Look,
They wore alive, and ruminating still,
In Fancy's Eye; and there the frowning Bull,
And Ox half-rais'd
. A little farther, burns
The guiltless Cottage; and the haughty Dome
Stoops to the Base. Th' uprooted Forrest flies
Aloft in Air, or, flaming out, displays
The savage Haunts, by Day unpierc'd before. [...]
(pp. 64 in original, pp. 68-9 in Sambrook)
Provenance
Reading
Citation
At least 7 entries in ESTC (1727, 1728, 1730, 1731, 1735, 1740). [Also issued as part of The Four Seasons, and Other Poems.]

Poem first published as Summer. A Poem. By James Thomson. (London: Printed for J. Millan, 1727). Second edition in 1728.

Text revised between 1727 and 1746. Searching text from The Poetical Works (1830), checked against earlier editions. Also reading James Sambrook's edition of The Seasons and The Castle of Indolence (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), which reproduces the 1746 edition of Thomson's poem.

Collected in The Seasons, A Hymn, A Poem to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton, and Britannia, a Poem. By Mr. Thomson (1730). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
07/07/2013

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