"She [the soul] can her airy Train of Forms disband, / And makes new Levées at her own Command."
— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for S. Buckley and J. Tonson
Date
1712
Metaphor
"She [the soul] can her airy Train of Forms disband, / And makes new Levées at her own Command."
Metaphor in Context
As human Kind can by an Act direct
Perceive and Know, then Reason and Reflect:
So the Self-moving Spring has Power to Chuse,
These Methods to reject, and Those to use.
She can design and prosecute an End,
Exert her Vigour, or her Act suspend.
Free from the Insults of all foreign Power,
She does her Godlike Liberty secure:
Her Right and high Prerogative maintains,
Impatient of the Yoke, and scorns coercive Chains.
She can her airy Train of Forms disband,
And makes new Levées at her own Command.
O'er her Ideas Sovereign she presides,
At Pleasure These unites, and Those divides.
(VII, ll. 422-35, pp. 336-7)
Perceive and Know, then Reason and Reflect:
So the Self-moving Spring has Power to Chuse,
These Methods to reject, and Those to use.
She can design and prosecute an End,
Exert her Vigour, or her Act suspend.
Free from the Insults of all foreign Power,
She does her Godlike Liberty secure:
Her Right and high Prerogative maintains,
Impatient of the Yoke, and scorns coercive Chains.
She can her airy Train of Forms disband,
And makes new Levées at her own Command.
O'er her Ideas Sovereign she presides,
At Pleasure These unites, and Those divides.
(VII, ll. 422-35, pp. 336-7)
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
At least 8 entries in ESTC (1712, 1715, 1718, 1736, 1797).
Text from Sir Richard Blackmore, Creation: A Philosophical Poem. Demonstrating the Existence and Providence of a God, 2nd ed. (London: S. Buckley and J. Tonson, 1712). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO>
Other Online Editions: first edition (also published in 1712) is available <Link to ECCO>. See also 3rd edition (1715) <Link to Google Books>.
Text from Sir Richard Blackmore, Creation: A Philosophical Poem. Demonstrating the Existence and Providence of a God, 2nd ed. (London: S. Buckley and J. Tonson, 1712). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO>
Other Online Editions: first edition (also published in 1712) is available <Link to ECCO>. See also 3rd edition (1715) <Link to Google Books>.
Date of Entry
08/28/2005
Date of Review
05/26/2011
