"Ay me! Where roves my Fancy! What kind Dreams / Crowd with sweet Violence on my waking Mind!"
— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by J. Humfreys, for N. Cliff
Date
1709
Metaphor
"Ay me! Where roves my Fancy! What kind Dreams / Crowd with sweet Violence on my waking Mind!"
Metaphor in Context
Ay me! Where roves my Fancy! What kind Dreams
Crowd with sweet Violence on my waking Mind!
Perhaps Illusions all! Inform me, Muse,
Chuses she rather to retire apart
To recollect her dissipated Powers,
And call her Thoughts her own. So lately freed
From Earths vain scenes, gay Visits, Gratulations,
From Hymen's hurrying and tumultuous Joys,
And Fears and Pangs, fierce Pangs that wrought her Death.
Tell me on what sublimer Theme she dwells
In Contemplation, with unerring Clue
Infinite Truth pursuing. (When, my Soul,
O when shall thy Release from cumbrous Flesh
Pass the Great Seal of Heaven? What happy Hour
Shall give thy Thoughts a Loose to soar and trace
The Intellectual World? Divine Delight!
VERNERA's lov'd Employ!) Perhaps she sings
To some new golden Harp th'Almighty Deeds,
The Names, the Honours of her Saviour-God,
His Cross, his Grave, his Victory, and his Crown:
Oh could I imitate th'exalted Notes,
And mortal Ears could bear them!---
(p. 306)
Crowd with sweet Violence on my waking Mind!
Perhaps Illusions all! Inform me, Muse,
Chuses she rather to retire apart
To recollect her dissipated Powers,
And call her Thoughts her own. So lately freed
From Earths vain scenes, gay Visits, Gratulations,
From Hymen's hurrying and tumultuous Joys,
And Fears and Pangs, fierce Pangs that wrought her Death.
Tell me on what sublimer Theme she dwells
In Contemplation, with unerring Clue
Infinite Truth pursuing. (When, my Soul,
O when shall thy Release from cumbrous Flesh
Pass the Great Seal of Heaven? What happy Hour
Shall give thy Thoughts a Loose to soar and trace
The Intellectual World? Divine Delight!
VERNERA's lov'd Employ!) Perhaps she sings
To some new golden Harp th'Almighty Deeds,
The Names, the Honours of her Saviour-God,
His Cross, his Grave, his Victory, and his Crown:
Oh could I imitate th'exalted Notes,
And mortal Ears could bear them!---
(p. 306)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "mind" and "crowd" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
35 entries in ESTC (1709, 1715, 1731, 1737, 1743, 1748, 1750, 1751, 1753, 1758, 1762, 1764, 1765, 1770, 1772, 1778, 1779, 1780, 1781, 1785, 1786, 1788, 1790, 1792, 1793, 1795, 1796, 1798, 1799). Compare two-book and three-book versions.
See Isaac Watts, Horæ Lyricæ. Poems Chiefly of the Lyric Kind. In Three Books, 2nd ed. (London: Printed by J. Humfreys, for N. Cliff, 1709). <Link to ECCO>
Searching The Works of the Reverend and Learned Isaac Watts, D. D., 6 vols. (London: Printed by and for John Barfield, 1810).
See Isaac Watts, Horæ Lyricæ. Poems Chiefly of the Lyric Kind. In Three Books, 2nd ed. (London: Printed by J. Humfreys, for N. Cliff, 1709). <Link to ECCO>
Searching The Works of the Reverend and Learned Isaac Watts, D. D., 6 vols. (London: Printed by and for John Barfield, 1810).
Date of Entry
03/07/2006
Date of Review
07/20/2011
