work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
3214,"","Searching ""rule"" and ""reason"" in HDIS",2004-06-10 00:00:00 UTC,"""My love! nay rather my damnation thou,""
Said he: ""nor am I bound to keep my vow;
The fiend thy sire has sent thee from below,
Else how couldst thou my secret sorrows know?
Avaunt, old witch, for I renounce thy bed:
The queen may take the forfeit of my head,
Ere any of my race so foul a crone shall wed.""
Both heard, the judge pronounced against the knight;
So was he married in his own despite:
And all day after hid him as an owl,
Not able to sustain a sight so foul.
Perhaps the reader thinks I do him wrong,
To pass the marriage-feast, and nuptial song:
Mirth there was none, the man was à-la-mort,
And little courage had to make his court.
To bed they went, the bridegroom and the bride.
Was never such an ill-paired couple tied!
Restless he tossed, and tumbled to and fro,
And rolled, and wriggled further off, for woe.
The good old wife lay smiling by his side,
And caught him in her quivering arms, and cried,--
""When you my ravished predecessor saw,
You were not then become this man of straw;
Had you been such, you might have scaped the law.
Is this the custom of King Arthur's court?
Are all Round-table Knights of such a sort?
Remember I am she who saved your life,
Your loving, lawful, and complying wife:
Not thus you swore in your unhappy hour,
Nor I for this return employed my power.
In time of need I was your faithful friend;
Nor did I since, nor ever will offend.
Believe me, my loved lord, 'tis much unkind;
What fury has possessed your altered mind?
Thus on my wedding-night--without pretence--
Come turn this way, or tell me my offence.
If not your wife, let reason's rule persuade;
Name but my fault, amends shall soon be made.""
(pp. 810-11, ll. 334-364)",2008-09-24,8444,•Appears Twice: Also in Ogle's Canterbury Tales (1741). See also entry under Ogle. ,"""If not your wife, let reason's rule persuade / Name but my fault, amends shall soon be made.""","",2009-09-14 19:33:34 UTC,""
3957,"","Searching ""throne"" and ""mind"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2004-07-07 00:00:00 UTC,"""The Cause and Spring of motion, from above,
Hung down on earth, the golden chain of Love;
Great was the effect, and high was his intent,
When peace among the jarring seeds he sent:
Fire, flood, and earth, and air, by this were bound,
And love, the common link, the new creation crowned.
The chain still holds; for, though the forms decay,
Eternal matter never wears away:
The same first Mover certain bounds has placed,
How long those perishable forms shall last;
Nor can they last beyond the time assigned
By that all-seeing, and all-making Mind:
Shorten their hours they may; for will is free;
But never pass the appointed destiny.
So men oppressed, when weary of their breath,
Throw off the burden, and suborn their death.
Then, since those forms begin, and have their end,
On some unaltered cause they sure depend:
Parts of the whole are we; but God the whole;
Who gives us life, and animating soul.
For nature cannot from a part derive
That being, which the whole can only give:
He, perfect, stable; but imperfect we,
Subject to change, and different in degree;
Plants, beasts, and man; and, as our organs are,
We, more or less, of his perfection share.
But, by a long descent, the ethereal fire
Corrupts; and forms, the mortal part, expire.
As he withdraws his virtue, so they pass,
And the same matter makes another mass.
This law the Omniscient Power was pleased to give,
That every kind should by succession live;
That individuals die, his will ordains;
The propagated species still remains.
The monarch oak, the patriarch of the trees,
Shoots rising up, and spreads by slow degrees;
Three centuries he grows, and three he stays,
Supreme in state, and in three more decays:
So wears the paving pebble in the street,
And towns and towers their fatal periods meet
So rivers, rapid once, now naked lie,
Forsaken of their springs, and leave their channels dry:
So man, at first a drop, dilates with heat,
Then formed, the little heart begins to beat;
Secret he feeds, unknowing in the cell;
At length, for hatching ripe, he breaks the shell,
And struggles into breath, and cries for aid;
Then, helpless, in his mother's lap is laid.
He creeps, he walks, and, issuing into man,
Grudges their life, from whence his own began;
Retchless of laws, affects to rule alone,
Anxious to reign, and restless on the throne;
First vegetive, then feels, and reasons last;
Rich of three souls, and lives all three to waste.
Some thus, but thousands more in flower of age;
For few arrive to run the latter stage.
Sunk in the first, in battle some are slain,
And others whelmed beneath the stormy main.
What makes all this, but Jupiter the king,
At whose command we perish, and we spring?
Then 'tis our best, since thus ordained to die,
To make a virtue of necessity;
Take what he gives, since to rebel is vain;
The bad grows better, which we well sustain;
And could we choose the time, and choose aright,
'Tis best to die, our honour at the height.
When we have done our ancestors no shame,
But served our friends, and well secured our fame;
Then should we wish our happy life to close,
And leave no more for fortune to dispose.
So should we make our death a glad relief
From future shame, from sickness, and from grief;
Enjoying, while we live, the present hour,
And dying in our excellence and flower.
Then round our deathbed every friend should run,
And joy us of our conquest early won;
While the malicious world, with envious tears,
Should grudge our happy end, and wish it theirs.
Since then our Arcite is with honour dead,
Why should we mourn, that he so soon is freed,
Or call untimely, what the gods decreed?
With grief as just, a friend may be deplored,
From a foul prison to free air restored.
Ought he to thank his kinsman or his wife,
Could tears recall him into wretched life?
Their sorrow hurts themselves; on him is lost;
And, worse than both, offends his happy ghost.
What then remains, but, after past annoy,
To take the good vicissitude of joy;
To thank the gracious gods for what they give,
Possess our souls, and while we live, to live?
Ordain we then two sorrows to combine,
And in one point the extremes of grief to join;
That thence resulting joy may be renewed,
As jarring notes in harmony conclude.
Then I propose, that Palamon shall be
In marriage joined with beauteous Emily;
For which already I have gained the assent
Of my free people in full parliament.
Long love to her has borne the faithful knight,
And well deserved, had fortune done him right:
'Tis time to mend her fault, since Emily,
By Arcite's death, from former vows is free;
If you, fair sister, ratify the accord,
And take him for your husband and your lord.
'Tis no dishonour to confer your grace
On one descended from a royal race;
And were he less, yet years of service past,
From grateful souls, exact reward at last.
Pity is heaven's and yours; nor can she find
A throne so soft as in a woman's mind.""
(pp. 631-4, ll. 1024-1134",,10286,"John Dryden. Ed. Keith Walker Oxford and New York: Oxford UP, 1987.","One cannot find ""A throne so soft as in a woman's mind""","",2009-09-14 19:34:52 UTC,""
3981,"","Searching ""rule"" and ""reason"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2004-06-14 00:00:00 UTC,"PHAEDRA
I must confess 'tis true thou tell'st me, Nurse,
But forc'd by Passion, I pursue the worse.
Headlong to Ruine runs my knowing Mind,
Which oft turns back, but vainly, Help to find.
So when against the Tide the Sailor toils
To force his loaded Bark, the Current foils
His Pains, down Stream the master'd Vessel's drove.
My Reason's conquer'd by more powerful Love,
Who rules as Tyrant in my captiv'd Breast.
This winged God does Heav'n and Earth infest.
With all-o'er-mast'ring Flames Jove's self he scorches,
Mars more than Fire-Pikes dreads his little Torches.
The God who three-fork'd Thunder frames, who toils,
Unswelter'd in Ætnæan Forges, broils
In his small Fires. Phoebus who bears the Fame
For Archery, this Boy with surer Aim
Tranfixes: through the Earth and ample Skies
A winged Plague to Men and Gods, he flies.
",2012-01-12,10343,"•The ""captiv'd Breast"" is an extra touch. Nice.","""My Reason's conquer'd by more powerful Love, / Who rules as Tyrant in my captiv'd Breast.""","",2012-01-12 21:23:04 UTC,""
4238,"","Searching ""empire"" and ""soul"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2004-08-11 00:00:00 UTC,"Oh! my dear Lysidas! my faithful Friend,
Would I could here, with all my Pleasures end!
'Twas Heav'n, 'twas Extasy, each Minute brought
New Raptures to my Senses, Soul, and Thought.
Young am'rous Hero's at her Feet did fall,
Despair'd, and dy'd, whilst I was Lord of all.
Her Empire o'er my Soul each Moment grew;
Her Charms appear'd more numerous and new:
Fonder each Hour my tender Heart became,
And ev'ry Look fann'd and increas'd my Flame.
Some God inform thee of my bless'd Estate;
But all their Pow'rs divert thee from my Fate!
For on a Day, oh! may no chearful Ray
Of the Sun's Light, bless that unlucky Day;
May the black Hours from the Account be torn;
May no fair Thing upon that Day be born;
May Fate and Hell appoint it for their own;
May no good Deed be in its Circle done;
May Rapes, Conspiracies, and Murthers, stay
'Till it comes on, be that the horrid Day.
When just before we were to solemnize
Our Vows, Death does the lovely Maid surprize.
Her fleeting Soul so quickly disappears,
As Leaves blown off with Winds, or falling Stars.
And Life its Flight assum'd with such a Pace,
It took no Farewel of her charming Face:
Her flying Soul no Beauty did surprize;
It scarce took Time to languish in her Eyes:
But on my panting Bosom bow'd her Head,
And sighing, these surprizing Words she said.",2011-01-06,11027,"","""Her Empire o'er my Soul each Moment grew; / Her Charms appear'd more numerous and new: / Fonder each Hour my tender Heart became, / And ev'ry Look fann'd and increas'd my Flame.""",Empire,2012-01-06 16:14:19 UTC,""
7163,"",Reading ,2014-05-26 20:23:16 UTC,"For thus old Saws foretel, and Helenus
Anchises drooping Son enliven'd thus;
When Ilium now was in a sinking State;
And he was doubtful of his future Fate:
O Goddess born, with thy hard Fortune strive,
Troy never can be lost, and thou alive.
Thy Passage thou shalt free through Fire and Sword,
And Troy in Foreign Lands shall be restor'd.
In happier Fields a rising Town I see,
Greater than what e'er was, or is, or e'er shall be:
And Heav'n yet owes the: World a Race deriv'd from Thee.
Sages, and Chiefs of other Lineage born
The City shall extend, extended shall adorn:
But from Julus he must draw his Breath,
By whom thy Rome shall rule the conquer'd Earth:
Whom Heav'n will lend Mankind on Earth to reign,
And late require the precious Pledge again.
This Helenus to great AEneas told,
Which I retain, e'er since in other Mould:
My Soul was cloath'd; and now rejoice to view
My Country Walls rebuilt, and Troy reviv'd anew,
Rais'd by the fall: Decreed by Loss to Gain;
Enslav'd but to be free, and conquer'd but to reign.
(pp. 527-8; cf. pp. 831-2 in OUP)",,23863,"","""This Helenus to great AEneas told, / Which I retain, e'er since in other Mould: / My Soul was cloath'd; and now rejoice to view / My Country Walls rebuilt, and Troy reviv'd anew, / Rais'd by the fall: Decreed by Loss to Gain; / Enslav'd but to be free, and conquer'd but to reign.""","",2014-05-26 20:23:27 UTC,""