work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
5612,"",Reading,2003-07-29 00:00:00 UTC,"O, Montagu! forgive me, if I sing
Thy wisdom tempered with the milder ray
Of soft humanity, and kindness bland:
So wide its influence, that the bright beams
Reach the low vale where mists of ignorance lodge,
Strike on the innate spark which lay immersed,
Thick-clogged, and almost quenched in total night--
On me it fell, and cheered my joyless heart.
Unwelcome is the first bright dawn of light
To the dark soul; impatient, she rejects,
And fain would push the heavenly stranger back;
She loathes the cranny which admits the day;
Confused, afraid of the intruding guest;
Disturbed, unwilling to receive the beam,
Which to herself her native darkness shows.
The effort rude to quench the cheering flame
Was mine, and e'en on Stella could I gaze
With sullen envy, and admiring pride,
Till, doubly roused by Montagu, the pair
Conspire to clear my dull, imprisoned sense,
And chase the mists which dimmed my visual beam.
Oft as I trod my native wilds alone,
Strong gusts of thought would rise, but rise to die;
The portals of the swelling soul ne'er oped
By liberal converse, rude ideas strove
Awhile for vent, but found it not, and died.
Thus rust the Mind's best powers. Yon starry orbs,
Majestic ocean, flowery vales, gay groves,
Eye-wasting lawns, and heaven-attempting hills
Which bound th' horizon, and which curb the view;
All those, with beauteous imagery, awaked
My ravished soul to ecstasy untaught,
To all the transport the rapt sense can bear;
But all expired, for want of powers to speak;
All perished in the mind as soon as born,
Erased more quick than cyphers on the shore,
O'er which cruel waves, unheedful roll.
Such timid rapture as young Edwin seized,
When his lone footsteps on the Sage obtrude,
Whose noble precept charmed his wondering
Such rapture filled Lactilla's vacant soul,
When the bright Moralist, in softness dressed,
Opes all the glories of the mental world,
Deigns to direct the infant thought, to prune
The budding sentiment, uprear the stalk
Of feeble fancy, bid idea live,
Woo the abstracted spirit form its cares,
And gently guide her to scenes of peace.
Mine was than balm, and mine the grateful heart,
Which breathes its thanks in rough, but timid strains.
(ll. 30-79, pp. 395-6)",2003-10-23,14992,"•I've included all the stanzas but the first because of the density of metaphors (8 entries total).
•INTEREST. There is more at work here: cranny, guest, etc. -- Yes, a Camera Obscura metaphor.","""Unwelcome is the first bright dawn of light / To the dark soul; impatient, she rejects, / And fain would push the heavenly stranger back; / She loathes the cranny which admits the day; / Confused, afraid of the intruding guest; / Disturbed, unwilling to receive the beam, / Which to herself her native darkness shows.""",Rooms,2013-11-17 16:56:53 UTC,""
5767,"","Reading; confirmed in ECCO-TCP. Found again reading Jack Lynch, ""Samuel Johnson, Unbeliever."" Eighteenth-Century Life 29:3 (September, 2005): 1-19, 16. https://doi.org/10.1215/00982601-29-3-1",2005-09-19 00:00:00 UTC,"When we were alone, I introduced the subject of death, and endeavoured to maintain that the fear of it might be got over. I told him that David Hume said to me, he was no more uneasy to think he should not be after his life, than that he he had not been before he began to exist. JOHNSON. ""Sir, if he really thinks so, his perceptions are disturbed; he is mad; if he does think so, he lies. He may tell you, he holds his finger in the flame of a candle, without feeling pain; would you believe him? When he dies, he at least gives up all he has."" BOSWELL. Foote, Sir, told me, that when he was very ill he was not afraid to die."" JOHNSON. ""It is not true, Sir. Hold a pistol to Foote's breast, or to Hume's breast, and threaten to kill them and you'll see how they behave."" BOSWELL. ""But may we not fortify our minds for the approach of death?""--Here I am sensible I was in the wrong, to bring before his view what he ever looked upon with horrour; for although when in a celestial frame of mind in his ""Vanity of Human Wishes,"" he has supposed death to be ""kind Nature's signal for retreat,"" from this state of being to ""a happier seat,"" his thoughts upon this awful were in general full of dismal apprehensions. His mind resembled the vast ampitheatre, the Colisaeum at Rome. In the centre stood his judgment, which like a mighty gladiator, combated those apprehensions that, like the wild beasts of the Arena, were all around in cells, ready to be let out upon him. After a conflict, he drives then back to their dens; but not killing them, they were still assailing him. To my question, whether we might not fortify our minds for the approach of death, he answered in a passion, ""No, Sir, let it alone. It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time."" He added, (with an earnest look,) ""A man knows it must be so, and submits. It will do him no good to whine.""
(p. 379-80; cf. I, p. 329 in 1791 printing)",,15364,"•I've included four times: Ampitheatre, Coliseum, Gladiator, Beasts","""His mind resembled the vast ampitheatre, the Colisaeum at Rome. In the centre stood his judgment, which like a mighty gladiator, combated those apprehensions that, like the wild beasts of the Arena, were all around in cells, ready to be let out upon him. After a conflict, he drives then back to their dens; but not killing them, they were still assailing him.""",Theater,2018-04-16 20:44:57 UTC,"A.D. 1769, Aetat. 60"
5887,"","Searching ""soul"" and ""cell"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-08-16 00:00:00 UTC,"Guide of my wayward steps, when young desire
Caught the first spark of Emulation's fire,
(Whose genial power, enkindling as it ran,
Rais'd Life, to Sense, to Reason, and to Man,)
Still, still my soul in memory's inmost cell,
Where images most dear, most sacred dwell,
With willing gratitude retains, reveres,
Thy faithful service to my weakest years!
",,15636,•INTEREST. Occasional subjects are what Swift makes fun of in Tritical Essay. Should look to see how many of these offer meditation and metaphors.
•I've included twice: Cell and Dwelling,"""Still, still my soul in memory's inmost cell, / Where images most dear, most sacred dwell, / With willing gratitude retains, reveres, / Thy faithful service to my weakest years!""",Rooms,2009-09-14 19:44:10 UTC,Verses on Occasional Subjects
6163,"",Searching in HDIS (Poetry),2005-08-29 00:00:00 UTC,"Although his strength attain'd so high an Age,
And long experience made him much a Sage--
Mature in Understanding--sound in Sense--
To prophecy facts prov'd he'd no pretence.
He so far analiz'd his Consort's heart
As clearly, to infer Pride fill'd a part;
That Vanity another part possest,
And Ostentation occupied the rest;
But ne'er investigated how their force
Would check all Charity's, and Virtue's course--
Would all those tender sympathies destroy
Which feel strong transports from another's joy--
Would, in the end, confound all right and wrong,
All that to Friendship, Faith--and Love belong.
Saw not how thirst for Pomp, and lust for Fame,
Would institute their bold unbounded claim!
Each principle of blest impulsion bind,
Which moves the breast to benefit Mankind!
Discover'd not that character of Soul
That wish'd for idol-worship from the Whole!
Trac'd not the mazes of her mystic brain
To mark what monsters such deep cells contain
Contriving constant schemes to furnish food,
For breeding Vultures' ever hungry brood!
Knew not, with all his scientific skill
Such Appetites his Wealth would never fill;
That when such Whirlpools yawn for full supply
Ten thousand little rills are soon drunk dry.
When such enormous Whales feel hunger's call,
Prodigious shoals of lesser fry must fall;
Or when cold Death had closed his aged eyes,
Poor Crispin's hopes would fall a sacrifice!",,16307,"•I've included thrice: Mazes, Cells, Monsters","On might not trace ""the mazes of her mystic brain / To mark what monsters such deep cells contain / Contriving constant schemes to furnish food, / For breeding Vultures' ever hungry brood!""","",2009-09-14 19:46:27 UTC,""
6163,Flights of Fancy,"Searching ""imagination"" and ""room"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-08-29 00:00:00 UTC,"Compare Thy works with Heav'n's unerring Word,
And note if nought be sinful, frail, absurd--
Whether its precepts, pure, in every part,
Have mov'd Thy Mind--have influenc'd Thy Heart.
From Reason's dawning, to the recent day,
Did ne'er conception, word, or action, stray?
But every pow'r, and faculty, of Soul,
In every waking moment keep the Whole?
Hast Thou, thro' all that long-protracted length,
Lov'd God with all Thy Heart--Mind--Soul--and Strength?
Hast Thou so manag'd Pow'r, dispos'd of Pelf,
As proves Thou lov'st Thy Neighbour as Thyself?
Ah! Thy proud Buildings publicly declare
What Thy Religion, Love, and Motives, are.
Thy Lawns, Thy Gardens, and Thy Groves, confess,
Thy splendid Furniture--Thy pompous Dress--
Thy crowded Table, and Thy Costly Treat--
Thy brilliant Side-board--and Thy lordly Suite--
Thy public Feastings, and proud Equipage--
All prove what graceless hopes Thy heart engage!
What sensual objects all Thy Soul absorb,
And bind Thy Spirit to this earthly Orb!
Each Passion stir, and stimulate each Lust,
To grasp at emptiness and grapple dust!
Urge on Thy Might, and agitate Thy Mind,
To pounce at shadows, and pursue the wind!
Inflame Affections--whip and spur Thy Will,
For things that ne'er can satisfy, or fill!
Which fetter judgment--rivet Reason's pow'rs,
To what Time terminates, or Death devours!
What Understanding's purest light pervert,
To grope in darkness--grovel in the dirt!
Draw down Ambition from substantial views,
To hunt for empty forms, and fading hues!
Solicit Fancy from celestial flights,
To wander o'er the World for frail delights
And crowd Imagination's rooms, immense,
With what relates alone to Time and Sense!
Faith, still deluded with lov'd Nature's Lies,
And Hope, still eying Earth's deceptive Toys;
Where Charity some cheating trifle spends,
While Folly frustrates Ostentation's ends!",2013-06-04,16311,"•I've included thrice: Crowd, Rooms, Birds
• Reviewed 2009-07-31","""Solicit Fancy from celestial flights, / To wander o'er the World for frail delights / And crowd Imagination's rooms, immense, / With what relates alone to Time and Sense!""",Rooms,2013-06-04 15:23:45 UTC,""
6270,"","Searching ""mind"" at Electronic Text Center at UVA Library",2005-08-11 00:00:00 UTC,"We never find our attention called to any particular part or member of the body, except when there is somewhat amiss in that part or member. And, in like manner as we do not think of any one part or member in particular, so neither do we consider our entire microcosm and frame. The body is apprehended as no more important and of intimate connection to a man engaged in a train of reflections, than the house or apartment in which he [page 10] dwells. The mind may aptly be described under the denomination of the ""stranger at home."" On set occasions and at appropriate times we examine our stores, and ascertain the various commodities we have, laid up in our presses and our coffers. Like the governor of a fort in time of peace, which was erected to keep out a foreign assailant, we occasionally visit our armoury, and take account of the muskets, the swords, and other implements of war it contains, but for the most part are engaged in the occupations of peace, and do not call the means of warfare in any sort to our recollection.
(pp. 9-10)",,16583,•I've included twice: Governor and Fort,"""On set occasions and at appropriate times we examine our stores, and ascertain the various commodities we have, laid up in our presses and our coffers. Like the governor of a fort in time of peace, which was erected to keep out a foreign assailant, we occasionally visit our armoury, and take account of the muskets, the swords, and other implements of war it contains, but for the most part are engaged in the occupations of peace, and do not call the means of warfare in any sort to our recollection""",Inhabitants,2009-09-14 19:47:21 UTC,Essay I. Of Body and Mind. The Prologue.
6757,"",Reading John Berryman's Dream Songs,2010-09-26 20:27:04 UTC,"... I am glad you take any pleasure in my poor Poem; -- which I would willingly take the trouble to unwrite, if possible, did I care so much as I have done about Reputation. I received a copy of the Cenci, as from yourself from Hunt. There is only one part of it I am judge of; the Poetry, and dramatic effect, which by many spirits now a days is considered the mammon. A modern work it is said must have a purpose, which may be the God--an artist must serve Mammon--he must have ""self concentration"" selfishness perhaps. You I am sure will forgive me for sincerely remarking that you might curb your magnanimity and be more of an artist, and ""load every rift"" of your subject with ore. The thought of such discipline must fall like cold chains upon you, who perhaps never sat with your wings furl'd for six Months together. And is not this extraordina[r]y talk for the writer of Endymion? whose mind was like a pack of scattered cards--I am pick'd up and sorted to a pip. My Imagination is a Monastery and I am its Monk--you must explain my metapcs to yourself. I am in expectation of Prometheus every day. Could I have my own wish for its interest effected you would have it still in manuscript--or be but now putting an end to the second act. I remember you advising me not to publish my first-blights, on Hampstead heath--I am returning advice upon your hands. Most of the Poems in the volume I send you have been written above two years, and would never have been publish'd but from a hope of gain; so you see I am inclined to take your advice now. I must exp[r]ess once more my deep sense of your kindness, adding my sincere thanks and respects for Mrs. Shelley.
(pp. 389-90)
",,17988,"","""My Imagination is a Monastery and I am its Monk--you must explain my metapcs to yourself.""","",2010-09-26 20:27:04 UTC,""
7120,"",Reading,2011-10-25 21:01:26 UTC,"MERCURY
Crouch then in silence. Awful Sufferer!
To thee unwilling, most unwillingly
I come, by the great Father's will driven down,
To execute a doom of new revenge.
Alas! I pity thee, and hate myself
That I can do no more: aye from thy sight
Returning, for a season, Heaven seems Hell,
So thy worn form pursues me night and day,
Smiling reproach. Wise art thou, firm and good,
But vainly wouldst stand forth alone in strife
Against the Omnipotent; as yon clear lamps
That measure and divide the weary years
From which there is no refuge, long have taught
And long must teach. Even now thy Torturer arms
With the strange might of unimagined pains
The powers who scheme slow agonies in Hell,
And my commission is to lead them here,
Or what more subtle, foul, or savage fiends
People the abyss, and leave them to their task.
Be it not so! there is a secret known
To thee, and to none else of living things,
Which may transfer the sceptre of wide Heaven,
The fear of which perplexes the Supreme:
Clothe it in words, and bid it clasp his throne
In intercession; bend thy soul in prayer,
And like a suppliant in some gorgeous fane,
Let the will kneel within thy haughty heart:
For benefits and meek submission tame
The fiercest and the mightiest.
(I, ll. 353-70)",,19289,"","""Clothe it in words, and bid it clasp his throne / In intercession; bend thy soul in prayer, / And like a suppliant in some gorgeous fane, / Let the will kneel within thy haughty heart.""","",2011-10-25 21:02:03 UTC,Act I
5642,"",Reading,2012-03-01 17:30:06 UTC,"To omit many ancient systems of this kind, Des Cartes, about the middle of the last century, dissatisfied with the materia prima, the substantial forms, and the occult qualities of the Peripatetics, conjectured boldly, that the heavenly bodies of our system are carried round by a vortex or whirlpool of subtile matter, just as straws and chaff are carried round in a tub of water. He conjectured, that the soul is seated in a small gland in the brain, called the pineal gland: That there, as in her chamber of presence, she receives intelligence of every thing that affects the senses, by means of a subtile fluid contained in the nerves, called the animal spirits; and that she dispatches these animal spirits, as her messengers, to put in motion the several muscles of the body, as there is occasion. By such conjectures as these, Des Cartes could account for every phænomenon in nature, in such a plausible manner, as gave satisfaction to a great part of the learned world for more than half a century.
(I.iii, p. 47)",,19616,USE IN ENTRY,"""He conjectured, that the soul is seated in a small gland in the brain, called the pineal gland: That there, as in her chamber of presence, she receives intelligence of every thing that affects the senses, by means of a subtile fluid contained in the nerves, called the animal spirits; and that she dispatches these animal spirits, as her messengers, to put in motion the several muscles of the body, as there is occasion.""",Rooms and Throne,2012-03-01 17:30:31 UTC,Chapter 3. Of Hypothesis
7762,"",Reading,2013-11-11 21:02:45 UTC,"Let us consider now the character of a democratical man, and how he arises out of that parsimonious one who, under the oligarchy, was trained up by his father in his manners. Such a one by force governs his own pleasures, which are expensive, and tend not to making money, and are called unnecessary. Eating, so far as conduces to preserve life, health, and a good habit of body, is a pleasure of the necessary kind: but the desire of these things beyond these purposes, is capable of being curbed in youth; and, being hurtful to the body and to the soul, with reference to her attaining wisdom and temperance, may be called unnecessary: in the same manner we shall say of venereal desires, and others. We just now denominated a drone the man who was full of such desires and pleasures; but the oligarchic man, him who was under the necessary ones. The democratic appears to arise from the oligarchic man in this manner:--When a young man, bred up without proper instruction, and in a parsimonious manner, comes to taste the honey of the drones, and associates with those vehement: and terrible creatures, who are able to procure pleasures every way diversified, from every quarter; thence imagine there is the beginning of a change in him, from the oligarchic to the democratic. And as the city was changed by the assistance of an alliance from without, with one party of it, with which it was of kin, shall not the youth be changed in the same manner, by the assistance of one species of desires from without, to another within him, which resembles it, and is akin to it? By all means. If any assistance be given to the oligarchic party within him, by his father, or the others of his family, admonishing and upbraiding him, then truly arises sedition and opposition, and a fight within him, with himself. Sometimes the democratic party yields to the oligarchic; some of the desires are destroyed, others retire, on the rise of a certain modesty in the soul of the youth, and he is again rendered somewhat decent. Again, when some desires retire, there are others akin to them, which grow up, and through inattention to the father's instructions, become both many and powerful, draw towards intimacies among themselves, and generate a multitude, seize the citadel or the soul of the youth, finding it evacuated of noble learning and pursuits, and of true reasoning, which are the best watchmen and guardians in the understandings of men beloved of the gods; and then false and boasting reasonings and opinions, rushing up in their stead, possess the same place in such a one. These false and boasting reasonings, denominating modesty to be stupidity; temperance, unmanliness; moderation, rusticity; decent expence, illiberality; thrust them all out disgracefully, and expel them their territories, and lead in in triumph insolence and anarchy, and luxury and impudence, with encomiums and applauses, shining with a great retinue, and crowned with crowns. Insolence they denominate education; anarchy, liberty; luxury, magnificence; and impudence, manhood. In this manner, a youth bred up with the necessary desires changes into the licentiousness and remissness of the unnecessary and unprofitable pleasures; his life is not regulated by any order, but deeming it pleasant, free, and happy, he puts all laws whatever on a level; like the city, he is fine and variegated, and many men and women too would desire to imitate his life, as he hath in him a great many patterns of republics and of manners.
(pp. 195-8)",,23177,"","""Again, when some desires retire, there are others akin to them, which grow up, and through inattention to the father's instructions, become both many and powerful, draw towards intimacies among themselves, and generate a multitude, seize the citadel or the soul of the youth, finding it evacuated of noble learning and pursuits, and of true reasoning, which are the best watchmen and guardians in the understandings of men beloved of the gods; and then false and boasting reasonings and opinions, rushing up in their stead, possess the same place in such a one.""",Inhabitants and Rooms,2013-11-11 21:02:45 UTC,Book VIII