"And what (I said) tho' blasphemy's loud scream / With that sweet music of deliv'rance strove; / Tho' all the fierce and drunken passions wove / A dance more wild than ever maniac's dream; / Ye storms, that round the dawning east assembled, / The sun was rising, tho' ye hid his light!"

— Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1772-1834)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for J. Johnson
Date
February, 1798
Metaphor
"And what (I said) tho' blasphemy's loud scream / With that sweet music of deliv'rance strove; / Tho' all the fierce and drunken passions wove / A dance more wild than ever maniac's dream; / Ye storms, that round the dawning east assembled, / The sun was rising, tho' ye hid his light!"
Metaphor in Context
III.
"And what (I said) tho' blasphemy's loud scream
"With that sweet music of deliv'rance strove;
"Tho' all the fierce and drunken passions wove
"A dance more wild than ever maniac's dream;
"Ye storms, that round the dawning east assembled,
"The sun was rising, tho' ye hid his light!"

And when to sooth my soul, that hop'd and trembled.
The dissonance ceas'd, and all seem'd calm and bright;
When France, her front deep-scar'd and gory,
Conceal'd with clust'ring wreaths of glory;
When insupportably advancing,
Her arm made mock'ry of the warrior's ramp,
While, timid looks of fury glancing,
Domestic treason, crush'd beneath her fatal stamp,
Writh'd, like a wounded dragon in his gore;
Then I reproach'd my fears that would not flee,
"And soon (I said) shall wisdom teach her lore
"In the low huts of them that toil and groan!
"And conqu'ring by her happiness alone,
"Shall France compel the nations to be free,
"Till love and joy look round, and call the earth
        "their own!"
(pp. 15-16)
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Only 1 entry in ESTC (1798).

Text from Fears in Solitude, Written in 1798 during the Alarms of an Invasion; to which are Added France: An Ode; and Frost at Midnight (London: Printed for J. Johnson, 1798). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
11/14/2013

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