"Ten thousand great ideas fill'd his mind; / But with the clouds they fled, and left no trace behind."
— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Andrew Millar
Date
1748
Metaphor
"Ten thousand great ideas fill'd his mind; / But with the clouds they fled, and left no trace behind."
Metaphor in Context
Yet not in thoughtless slumber were they past:
For oft the heavenly fire, that lay conceal'd
Beneath the sleeping embers, mounted fast,
And all its native light anew reveal'd:
Oft as he traversed the cerulean field,
And mark'd the clouds that drove before the wind,
Ten thousand glorious systems would he build,
Ten thousand great ideas fill'd his mind;
But with the clouds they fled, and left no trace behind.
(Canto I, ll. 523-31 , p. 192-3)
For oft the heavenly fire, that lay conceal'd
Beneath the sleeping embers, mounted fast,
And all its native light anew reveal'd:
Oft as he traversed the cerulean field,
And mark'd the clouds that drove before the wind,
Ten thousand glorious systems would he build,
Ten thousand great ideas fill'd his mind;
But with the clouds they fled, and left no trace behind.
(Canto I, ll. 523-31 , p. 192-3)
Categories
Provenance
HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Over 40 entries in ECCO, at least 20 in the ESTC (1748, 1749, 1750, 1751, 1752, 1757, 1762, 1763, 1765, 1766, 1767, 1768, 1772, 1773, 1774, 1775, 1776, 1777, 1778, 1780, 1784, 1787, 1788, 1789, 1794, 1795).
See The Castle of Indolence. An Allegorical Poem. Written in Imitation of Spenser by James Thomson. (London: A. Millar, 1748). <Link to ECCO>
Reading James Thomson, Liberty, The Castle of Indolence, and other Poems, ed. James Sambrook. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986).
See The Castle of Indolence. An Allegorical Poem. Written in Imitation of Spenser by James Thomson. (London: A. Millar, 1748). <Link to ECCO>
Reading James Thomson, Liberty, The Castle of Indolence, and other Poems, ed. James Sambrook. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986).
Date of Entry
11/24/2003
