work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
5614,"","Reading; found again searching ""mirror"" and ""mind in HDIS (Poetry); and again in ECCO-TCP",2003-12-17 00:00:00 UTC,"There is a pleasure in poetic pains
Which only poets know. The shifts and turns,
The expedients and inventions multiform
To which the mind resorts, in chase of terms
Though apt, yet coy, and difficult to win,--
To arrest the fleeting images that fill
The mirror of the mind, and hold them fast,
And force them sit, till he has pencil'd off
A faithful likeness of the forms he views;
Then to dispose his copies with such art
That each may find its most propitious light,
And shine by situation, hardly less
Than by the labour and the skill it cost,
Are occupations of the poet's mind
So pleasing, and that steal away the thought
With such address, from themes of sad import,
That lost in his own musings, happy man!
He feels the anxieties of life, denied
Their wonted entertainment, all retire.
Such joys has he that sings. But ah! not such,
Or seldom such, the hearers of his song.
Fastidious, or else listless, or perhaps
Aware of nothing arduous in a task
They never undertook, they little note
His dangers or escapes, and haply find
There least amusement where he found the most.
But is amusement all? studious of song,
And yet ambitious not to sing in vain,
I would not trifle merely, though the world
Be loudest in their praise who do no more.
Yet what can satire, whether grave or gay?
It may correct a foible, may chastise
The freaks of fashion, regulate the dress,
Retrench a sword-blade, or displace a patch;
But where are its sublimer trophies found?
What vice has it subdued? whose heart reclaim'd
By rigour, or whom laugh'd into reform?
Alas! Leviathan is not so tamed.
Laugh'd at, he laughs again; and stricken hard,
Turns to the stroke his adamantine scales,
That fear no discipline of human hands.
(Bk. II, ll. 285-325, pp. 146-7)",,15004,"","""The shifts and turns, / The expedients and inventions multiform / To which the mind resorts, in chase of terms / Though apt, yet coy, and difficult to win,-- / To arrest the fleeting images that fill / The mirror of the mind, and hold them fast, / And force them sit, till he has pencil'd off / A faithful likeness of the forms he views.""",Mirror,2013-08-22 21:11:58 UTC,""
5614,Enlightenment,HDIS,2003-12-18 00:00:00 UTC,"God never meant that man should scale the heavens
By strides of human wisdom. In his works
Though wonderous, He commands us in his word
To seek him rather, where his mercy shines.
The mind indeed enlighten'd from above
Views him in all; ascribes to the grand cause
The grand effect; acknowledges with joy
His manner, and with rapture tastes his style.
But never yet did philosophic tube
That brings the planets home into the eye
Of observation, and discovers, else
Not visible, his family of worlds,
Discover Him that rules them; such a veil
Hangs over mortal eyes, blind from the birth
And dark in things divine. Full often too
Our wayward intellect, the more we learn
Of nature, overlooks her Author more,
From instrumental causes proud to draw
Conclusions retrograde and mad mistake.
But if his word once teach us, shoot a ray
Through all the heart's dark chambers, and reveal
Truths undiscern'd but by that holy light,
Then all is plain. Philosophy baptized
In the pure fountain of eternal love
Has eyes indeed; and viewing all she sees
As meant to indicate a God to man,
Gives Him his praise, and forfeits not her own.
Learning has borne such fruit in other days
On all her branches. Piety has found
Friends in the friends of science, and true prayer
Has flow'd from lips wet with Castalian dews.
Such was thy wisdom, Newton, child-like sage!
Sagacious reader of the works of God,
And in his word sagacious. Such too thine,
Milton, whose genius had angelic wings,
And fed on manna. And such thine in whom
Our British Themis gloried with just cause,
Immortal Hale! for deep discernment praised
And sound integrity not more, than famed
For sanctity of manners undefiled.
(Bk. III, ll. 221-60, pp. 168-9)",,15011,"","The mind may be ""enlighten'd from above""","",2009-09-14 19:42:32 UTC,""
5628,"",Searching in HDIS (Poetry),2005-06-07 00:00:00 UTC,"Stella, how strong thy gentle argument!
By the convinc'd, I scorn the iron lore,
The savage virtues of untutor'd minds:
In thy mild rhetoric dwells a social love
Beyond my wild conceptions, optics false!
Thro' which I falsely judg'd of polish'd life.",,15071,"","""In thy mild rhetoric dwells a social love / Beyond my wild conceptions, optics false!/ Thro' which I falsely judg'd of polish'd life""","",2009-09-14 19:42:41 UTC,""
5655,"","Searching ""mirror"" and ""soul"" in HDIS (Poetry); confirmed in ECCO.",2005-11-21 00:00:00 UTC,"Child of the potent spell and nimble eye,
Young Fancy, oft in rainbow vest array'd,
Points to new scenes that in succession pass
Across the wond'rous mirror that she bears,
And bids thy unsated soul and wandering eye
A wider range o'er all her prospects take:
Lo, at her call, New-Zealand's wastes arise!
Casting their shadows far along the main,
Whose brows cloud-cap'd in joyless majesty,
No human foot hath trod since time began;
Here death-like silence ever-brooding dwells,
Save when the watching sailor startled hears,
Far from his native land at darksome night,
The shrill-ton'd petrel, or the penguin's voice,
That skim their trackless flight on lonely wing,
Through the bleak regions of a nameless main:
Here danger stalks and drinks with glutted ear
The wearied sailor's moan, and fruitless sigh,
Who, as he slowly cuts his daring way,
Affrighted drops his axe, and stops awhile,
To hear the jarring echoes lengthen'd din,
That fling from pathless cliffs their sullen sound:
Oft here the fiend his grisly visage shews,
His limbs of giant form in vesture clad
Of drear collected ice and stiffened snow,
The same he wore a thousand years ago,
That thwarts the sun-beam and endures the day.
(cf. pp. 12-13 in 1785 printing)",,15108,"","""Young Fancy, oft in rainbow vest array'd, / Points to new scenes that in succession pass / Across the wond'rous mirror that she bears, / And bids thy unsated soul and wandering eye / A wider range o'er all her prospects take.""",Inhabitants and Mirror,2014-07-15 19:05:33 UTC,""
5663,"","Searching ""reason"" and ""mirror"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-11-30 00:00:00 UTC,"May Europe's race the generous toil pursue,
And Truth's broad mirror spread to every view;
Awake to Reason's voice the savage mind,
Check Error's force, and civilize mankind;
Faith's radiant beam impart to farthest climes,
And teach pure Wisdom undebas'd by crimes;
To the free breeze the swelling sail unfold
Impell'd by Virtue, not allur'd by Gold.
No more with arms the trembling tribes destroy,
But soft Persuasion's gentler Powers employ,
Till, from her throne barbarian Rudeness hurl'd,
Refinement spread her Empire o'er the world.",,15150, •I've included twice: Mirror and Voice,"""May Europe's race the generous toil pursue, / And Truth's broad mirror spread to every view; / Awake to Reason's voice the savage mind, / Check Error's force, and civilize mankind.""",Mirror,2013-08-22 21:48:54 UTC,""
5663,"","Searching ""reason"" and ""mirror"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-11-30 00:00:00 UTC,"But does not Reason's faithful mirror shew
The future prospect of distress and woe,
And point what dangers modern softness wait
In the sad tale of Rome's declining state?--
Far yet such fears!--unnumber'd checks there lie
To stop the fatal flight of Luxury.
First, a less dangerous form it's power receives
From the strong influence Beauty's empire gives.
Of culinary skill the enormous waste
Offends with dull disgust her nicer taste;
Grandeur must art as well as wealth display,
And appetite to elegance give way.
Foul Gluttony, his beastly empire o'er,
Now snuffs the bleeding Hecatomb no more;
The rosy silk, and glittering gem, adorn
No rich tiara by the tyrant worn;
The flowing muslin in resplendent folds
No bloated son of selfish passion holds;
A nobler end the gifts of Commerce share,
And deck with heighten'd charms the lovely fair;
The snowy lawn's transparent web displays
The panting bosom to the enamor'd gaze;
For them the loom it's dædal labor plies,
For them the gems disclose their various dies,
Rival their glowing cheeks, and emulate their eyes.",,15152,"","""But does not Reason's faithful mirror she / The future prospect of distress and woe,/ And point what dangers modern softness wait / In the sad tale of Rome's declining state?""","",2009-09-14 19:42:53 UTC,""
5698,"",Searching in HDIS (Poetry),2005-06-03 00:00:00 UTC,"Shall I trust the thoughts that rise
And struggle in my panting breast,
Tinted with a thousand dyes,
Image quick on image prest?
Shall they dare, my trembling lays,
Lift their notes in feeble praise,
To sing a theme might well inspire
An Homer's force, a Pindar's fire?
Avaunt! avaunt! each coward fear;
I feel the swelling raptures roll
In surging tides upon my soul;
Celestial promptings strike my ear!
Reach then, reach my sounding lyre;
My panting soul is all on fire:
Swift the silver strings accord;
My eager hand,
Thy skill command;
A mighty strain be pour'd!
O! for a strain so potent to impart
The great sensations struggling in my heart!
Let but the high enthusiasms roll
Warm from my hand, as active in my soul;
Let the loud thunders of my voice declare
The vivid lightning's flashing there!
Then strong shall be the flood of rhyme,
And all be full, and all sublime.
Seize! seize! the glowing images that pass
Like transient shadows o'er the mimic glass!
Let not their fervors faint and die!
It is the hour of extacy.
All, all the Muse upon me breaks!
I hear, I know her voice, and thus she speaks:--",,15193,"•INTEREST. Wouldn't have found this otherwise (""mimic glass"" replaces ""mind""). Should USE IN ENTRY on Mirrors (Mont Blanc and sublime, can compare c18 and Romantic).","""Seize! seize! the glowing images that pass / Like transient shadows o'er the mimic glass!""",Mirror,2013-08-22 21:55:21 UTC,Stanza II.
5681,"",Reading,2012-08-13 21:27:04 UTC,"If heaven has into being deign'd to call
Thy light, O LIBERTY! to shine on all;
Bright intellectual Sun! why does thy ray
To earth distribute only partial day?
Since no resisting cause from spirit flows
Thy penetrating essence to opose;
No obstacles by Nature's hand imprest,
Thy subtle and ethereal beams arrest;
Nor motion's laws can speed thy active course,
Nor strong repulsion's pow'rs obstruct thy force;
Since there is no convexity in MIND,
Why are thy genial beams to parts confin'd?
While the chill North with thy bright ray is blest,
Why should fell darkness half the South invest?
Was it decreed, fair Freedom! at thy birth,
That thou shou'd'st ne'er irradiate all the earth?
While Britain basks in thy full blaze of light,
Why lies sad Afric quench'd in total night?
(ll. 1-18, p. 101 in Wood)",,19908,"","""Since there is no convexity in MIND, / Why are thy genial beams to parts confined?""",Optics,2012-08-13 21:27:04 UTC,""
5681,"",Reading,2012-08-14 13:30:19 UTC," Whene'er to Afric's shores I turn my eyes,
Horrors of deepest, deadliest guilt arise;
I see, by more than Fancy's mirror shewn,
The burning village, and the blazing town:
See the dire victim torn from social life,
The shrieking babe, the agonizing wife!
She, wretch forlorn! is dragg'd by hostile hands,
To distant tyrants sold, in distant lands!
Transmitted miseries, and successive chains,
The sole sad heritage her child obtains!
Ev'n this last wretched boon their foes deny,
To weep together, or together die.
By felon hands, by one relentless stroke,
See the fond links of feeling nature broke!
The fibres twisting round a parent's heart,
Torn from their grasp, and bleeding as they part.
(ll. 95-110, p. 104 in Wood)",,19911,"","""Whene'er to Afric's shores I turn my eyes, / Horrors of deepest, deadliest guilt arise; / I see, by more than Fancy's mirror shewn, / The burning village, and the blazing town.""",Optics,2012-08-14 13:30:51 UTC,""
7996,"","Searching ""fancy's mirror"" in ECCO",2014-07-29 20:06:35 UTC,"[...]
The storm once past, he gains the friendly ray
Of hope, to guide him through the dang'rous way;
Smiling, she bids each future prospect rise,
Through fancy's vary'd mirror, to his eyes.
Not so the slave; oppress'd with secret care,
He sinks the hapless victim of despair;
Or, doom'd to torments that might even move
The steely heart, and melt it into love;
Till worn with anguish, with'ring in his bloom,
He falls an early tenant of the tomb! [...]
(p. 20)",,24350,"","""The storm once past, he gains the friendly ray / Of hope, to guide him through the dang'rous way; / Smiling, she bids each future prospect rise, / Through fancy's vary'd mirror, to his eyes.""",Mirror,2014-07-29 20:06:35 UTC,""