work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
3347,"","Searching ""heart"" and ""iron"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-06-07 00:00:00 UTC,"Where Humber pours his rich commercial stream,
There dwelt a wretch, who breathed but to blaspheme.
In subterraneous caves his life he led,
Black as the mine, in which he wrought for bread.
When on a day, emerging from the deep,
A sabbath-day, (such sabbaths thousands keep!)
The wages of his weekly toil he bore
To buy a cock--whose blood might win him more;
As if the noblest of the feather'd kind
Were but for battle and for death design'd;
As if the consecrated hours were meant
For sport, to minds on cruelty intent.
It chanced, (such chances Providence obey,)
He met a fellow-labourer on the way,
Whose heart the same desires had once inflamed,
But now the savage temper was reclaim'd.
Persuasion on his lips had taken place;
For all plead well who plead the cause of grace.
His iron-heart with Scripture he assail'd,
Woo'd him to hear a sermon, and prevail'd.
His faithful bow the mighty preacher drew,
Swift as the lightning-glimpse the arrow flew.
He wept; he trembled; cast his eyes around,
To find a worse than he; but none he found.
He felt his sins, and wonder'd he should feel.
Grace made the wound, and grace alone could heal.",,8620,"","""His iron-heart with Scripture he assail'd, / Woo'd him to hear a sermon, and prevail'd.""",Metal,2009-09-14 19:33:40 UTC,""
3347,"","Searching ""heart"" and ""steel"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-06-09 00:00:00 UTC,"Now farewell oaths, and blasphemies, and lies!
He quits the sinner's for the martyr's prize.
That holy day was wash'd with many a tear,
Gilded with hope, yet shaded too by fear.
The next his swarthy brethren of the mine
Learn'd by his alter'd speech, the change divine,
Laugh'd when they should have wept, and swore the day
Was nigh when he would swear as fast as they.
""No,"" said the penitent: ""such words shall share
This breath no more; devoted now to prayer.
O! if thou seest, (thine eye the future sees,)
That I shall yet again blaspheme, like these,
Now strike me to the ground, on which I kneel,
Ere yet this heart relapses into steel;
Now take me to that Heaven I once defied,
Thy presence, thy embrace!""--He spoke an",,8629,"","""Now strike me to the ground, on which I kneel, / Ere yet this heart relapses into steel;""",Metal,2009-09-14 19:33:41 UTC,""
5961,Physiognomy,"Searching ""mind"" and ""line"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-05-11 00:00:00 UTC,"That youth of fairest promise, fair as May,
Pensively tender, and benignly gay,
On thy medallion still retains a form,
In health exulting, and with pleasure warm.
Teach thou my hand, with mutual love, to trace
His mind, as perfect as thy lines his face!
For Nature in that mind was pleas'd to pour
Of intellectual charms no trivial store;
Fancy's high spirit, talent's feeling nerve,
With tender modesty, with mild reserve,
And those prime virtues of ingenuous youth,
Alert benevolence, and dauntless truth;
Zeal, ever eager to make merit known,
And only tardy to announce its own;
Silent ambition, but, though silent, quick,
Yet softly shaded with a veil as thick
As the dark glasses tinted to descry
The sun, so soften'd not to wound the eye;
Temper by nature and by habit clear
From hasty choler, and from sullen fear,
Spleen and dejection could not touch the mind
That drew from solitude a joy refin'd,
To nurse inventive fire, in silence caught,
And brood successful o'er sequester'd thought.",,15860,"","""Teach thou my hand, with mutual love, to trace / His mind, as perfect as thy lines his face!""","",2009-09-14 19:44:54 UTC,""
5961,"","Searching ""mind"" and ""gold"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-05-27 00:00:00 UTC,"Thee, too, with sovereigns not unjustly plac'd
For bright magnificence and liberal taste,
Whose hand well-judging Fortune deign'd to use,
O'er Grecian scenes new lustre to diffuse;
Smiling to see, from Wealth's mysterious springs,
Her private favourite surpassing kings--
Thee, rich Herodes! Honour has enroll'd
For elegance of mind that match'd thy gold:
Exhausted quarries form thy graceful piles;
Thy Venus prais'd thee with victorious smiles.",,15862,"","""Thee, rich Herodes! Honour has enroll'd / For elegance of mind that match'd thy gold:""",Metal,2009-09-14 19:44:55 UTC,""
5965,"","Searching ""heart"" and ""steel"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-06-10 00:00:00 UTC,"Lo the procession! Let me pause intent,
And first drink pleasure at the peasant's grave.
Humane and christian is the muse, and fond
Of ev'ry object, cheerful or sedate,
Which rural scenes afford. She nor contemns
The nuptial holiday, nor views untouch'd
The sad solemnity of rustic woe,
What time the white-frock'd mourner slowly moves,
And brings with mute reluctance to the grave
The dear remains of some departed friend.
The decent sheet that overspreads the bier!
How well becomes it sorrow neat as their's,
Pure, and unsullied by the shameless tear
Of wrung hypocrisy! Steel were the heart
That could this passing spectacle survey,
Nor feel the touch of sympathy within.
Me it well pleases to the holy sward
To follow pitying, nor disowns my muse
The feminine sensations of a heart
That often vibrates at another's woe.
The tear that trickles down the manly cheek,
The burst of grief that braves control, the sigh
Which baffles interception, and escapes
Soon as the solemn pause bids lift the pall,
And ease the dead into his kindred earth,
Send many a tingling arrow through this breast,
Though the reluctant eye no grief betray,
And tearless silence in her deepest gloom
The decent pleasurable secret hide.
But often as my sated soul surveys
The sable funeral of city pomp,
Methinks life human is a play indeed,
And the poor player man, exhausted, spent,
Has made his exit, and now comes the farce.
'Tis pantomimic shew--the nodding plume,
The proud escutcheon'd hearse, and long parade
Of dry-eyed mourners clad in inky cloaks,
The streaming crape, and dismal aisle behung
With sable manufacture ill-applied.
To see such idle waste, and childish shew,
I smile, and nothing grieve. Not so, when death
Calls for the hind, and undissembled grief
Of father, widow, offspring, to the grave
His decent corpse attends. Then through my soul
Exquisite sympathy's vibration thrills;
It sorrows freely, breathes the grateful sigh,
Nor scorns to utter from a heart subdued
The mourner's luxury, the deep ""alas!""",,15866,•C-H takes from Poems (1808),"""Steel were the heart / That could this passing spectacle survey, / Nor feel the touch of sympathy within.""",Metal,2009-09-14 19:44:56 UTC,""
5961,Mind's Eye,"Searching ""mind"" and ""eye"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2006-04-17 00:00:00 UTC,"Julius! thou proof how mists of pride may blind
The eye of reason in the strongest mind!
It was thy fatal weakness to believe
Thy sculptur'd form from Romans might receive
Homage as tame as Asian slaves could pay
Their Babylonish king, of boundless sway,
Where all, for leave his city gate to pass,
Bent to his statue of imperial brass.
With equal pomp, by vain ambition plac'd,
Thy sculptur'd form the Capitol disgrac'd;
For, on a trampled globe, insulting sense,
It sought to awe the world with proud pretence.
Nor didst thou only in thy proper frame
Call Art to second thy aspiring aim:
Thy fav'rite steed, from whose portentous birth
Augurs announc'd thy reign o'er all this earth,
Nurs'd with fond care, bestrid by thee alone,
In Sculpture's consecrated beauty shone.
Before the fane of that celestial power,
Said, with parental smiles, to bless thy natal hour.
Misguided Julius! all the wide control
Which force and frankness in thy fearless soul
To thy firm grasp delusively assur'd,
Consummate cunning to thy heir secur'd.",,15874,"","""Julius! thou proof how mists of pride may blind / The eye of reason in the strongest mind!""",Eye,2009-09-14 19:44:57 UTC,""
5965,"","Searching ""mill"" and ""heart"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2006-12-12 00:00:00 UTC,"How pleasant now upon the village stile
To rest well-wearied, while the jovial boy,
From school dismiss'd, upon the sunny green
Pitches his wicket, a stone-steadied hat,
And bowls exulting! Of encumbrance stript,
He for his maiden visage nothing fears,
But to the scorching day-beam, unconcern'd,
His cheek and bosom bares, nor aught regards
The freckled aspect, or the sun-burnt skin.
Piece of the nether millstone is his heart
Who marks ill-pleas'd the frolic of the child,
Or views the rural festival unmov'd.
Me it delights to overhear the dance
Upon the winnow'd floor of the void grange,
To pause at hand, and listen to the sound
Of the brisk viol challenging the foot,
And of the foot respondent, and to see
The village maid and village hind alert
Pacing the giddy labyrinth of joy,
Each in the trim of holiday attir'd.
Nor pleases not, upon the social green,
The game laborious of the manly ball
Aim'd at the wicket, and its taper shanks
Levelling certain, but for hindrance quick
And resolute repulse of the strong blow,
That sends it thunder-struck aloft in air,
Or o'er the plain rebounding. Thou hast charms,
Rural festivity, not soon surpass'd,
Compare thee, as we may, with sport polite,
The neat amusement fashion qualifies,
Till nice refinement sits without disdain
Spectatress of the scene. Never more keen
Their liveliest ecstasy, than when, for health
To George restor'd, illumination's lamp
Was freely kindled, and the rural throng
From ev'ry door conven'd, along the street
Mingled in loyalty's triumphant maze.
Then pipe and viol felt alone fatigue,
While, nothing wearied, they with foot alert
The blazing window's artificial day
Down danc'd, the fretted cupola of heaven
Their spacious ball-room, their assembler God.",,15877,•C-H takes from Poems (1808),"""Piece of the nether millstone is his heart / Who marks ill-pleas'd the frolic of the child, / Or views the rural festival unmov'd.""","",2009-09-14 19:44:58 UTC,""
6059,"","Searching ""stamp"" and ""thought"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-04-09 00:00:00 UTC,"Oft have I seen yon solitary man
Pacing the upland meadow. On his brow
Sits melancholy, mark'd with decent pride,
As it would fly the busy taunting world,
And feed upon reflection. Sometimes, near
The foot of an old tree, he takes his seat,
And with the page of legendary lore
Cheats the dull hour, while Evening's sober eye
Looks tearful as it closes. In the dell
By the swift brook he loiters, sad and mute,
Save when a struggling sigh, half murmur'd, steals
From his wrung bosom. To the rising Moon,
His eye rais'd wistfully, expression fraught,
He pours the cherish'd anguish of his soul,
Silent, yet eloquent: For not a sound
That might alarm the night's lone centinel,
The dull-ey'd Owl, escapes his trembling lip,
Unapt in supplication. He is young,
And yet the stamp of thought so tempers youth,
That all its fires are faded. What is He?
And why, when morning sails upon the breeze,
Fanning the blue hill's summit, does he stay
Loit'ring and sullen, like a truant boy,
Beside the woodland glen; or stretch'd along
On the green slope, watch his slow wasting form
Reflected, trembling, on the river's breast?",,16054,"","""He is young, / And yet the stamp of thought so tempers youth, / That all its fires are faded""","",2009-09-14 19:45:33 UTC,""
6076,"","Searching ""breast"" and ""watch"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2006-11-16 00:00:00 UTC,"One dreary night, when winter's icy breath
Half petrified the scene, when not a star
Gleam'd o'er the bleak infinity of space,
Sudden the Hermit started from his couch
With painful agitation. On his cheek
The blanch'd interpreter of horror mute
Sat terribly impressive! In his breast
The ruddy fount of life convulsive flow'd,
And his broad eyes, fix'd motionless as death,
Gaz'd vacantly aghast! His feeble lamp
Was wasting rapidly; the biting gale
Pierc'd the thin texture of his narrow cell;
And silence, like a fearful centinel
Marking the peril which awaited near,
Conspir'd with sullen night to wrap the scene
In tenfold horrors. Thrice he rose, and thrice
His feet recoil'd; and still the livid flame
Lengthen'd and quiver'd as the moaning wind
Pass'd thro' the rushy crevice, while his heart
Beat, like the death-watch, in his shudd'ring breast.
(Cf. pp. 91-2 in 1800 Lyrical Tales)",,16085,"","""Thrice he rose, and thrice / His feet recoil'd; and still the livid flame / Lengthen'd and quiver'd as the moaning wind / Pass'd thro' the rushy crevice, while his heart / Beat, like the death-watch, in his shudd'ring breast.""","",2013-10-15 17:59:06 UTC,""
5961,"","Searching ""mind"" and ""chain"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2011-07-15 04:14:33 UTC,"Disease, dread fiend! whatever name thou bear,
I most abhor thee as the child of Care;
Nor fix'd of feature, nor of station sure,
Thy power as noxious as thy shape obscure;
While thy cold vapours, with a baleful gloom,
Blight intellectual fruits howe'er they bloom:
Yet e'en o'er thee, in thy despotic hours,
When thou hast chain'd the mind's excursive powers,
Though to thy gloomy keep by pain betray'd,
That mind can triumph by celestial aid:
From thee, dull monitor! e'en then can learn
A mental lesson of most high concern--
To know the suffering spirit's sure resource,
And hail the hallow'd fount of human force.",,18880,"","""Yet e'en o'er thee, in thy despotic hours, / When thou hast chain'd the mind's excursive powers, / Though to thy gloomy keep by pain betray'd, / That mind can triumph by celestial aid.""",Fetters,2011-07-15 04:14:33 UTC,""