"Dim lights of life that burn a length of years, / Useless, unseen, as lamps in sepulchres"
— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Date
1717, 1736
Metaphor
"Dim lights of life that burn a length of years, / Useless, unseen, as lamps in sepulchres"
Metaphor in Context
Why bade ye else, ye Pow'rs! her soul aspire
Above the vulgar flight of low desire?
Ambition first sprung from your blest abodes;
The glorious fault of Angels and of Gods:
Thence to their images on earth it flows,
And in the breasts of Kings and Heroes glows!
Most souls, 'tis true, but peep out once an age,
Dull sullen pris'ners in the body's cage:
Dim lights of life that burn a length of years,
Useless, unseen, as lamps in sepulchres;
Like Eastern Kings a lazy state they keep,
And close confin'd in their own palace sleep.
(p. 262, ll. 11-22)
Above the vulgar flight of low desire?
Ambition first sprung from your blest abodes;
The glorious fault of Angels and of Gods:
Thence to their images on earth it flows,
And in the breasts of Kings and Heroes glows!
Most souls, 'tis true, but peep out once an age,
Dull sullen pris'ners in the body's cage:
Dim lights of life that burn a length of years,
Useless, unseen, as lamps in sepulchres;
Like Eastern Kings a lazy state they keep,
And close confin'd in their own palace sleep.
(p. 262, ll. 11-22)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
At least 86 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1717, 1736, 1740, 1743, 1744, 1751, 1752, 1753, 1754, 1756, 1757, 1760, 1764, 1766, 1767, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1773, 1774, 1776, 1777, 1779, 1780, 1782, 1783, 1785, 1787, 1788, 1789, 1790, 1791, 1792, 1793, 1794, 1795, 1796, 1797, 1800).
First published in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope. (London: printed by W. Bowyer, for Jacob Tonson at Shakespear’s Head in the Strand, and Bernard Lintot between the Temple-Gates in Fleetstreet, 1717).<Link to ESTC>
Text from The Works of Alexander Pope. (London: Printed for B. Lintot, Lawton Gilliver, H. Lintot, L. Gilliver, and J. Clarke, 1736). <Link to LION>
Reading The Poems of Alexander Pope. A One-Volume Edition of the Twickenham Text with Selected Annotations. Ed. John Butt. (New Haven: Yale UP, 1963).
First published in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope. (London: printed by W. Bowyer, for Jacob Tonson at Shakespear’s Head in the Strand, and Bernard Lintot between the Temple-Gates in Fleetstreet, 1717).<Link to ESTC>
Text from The Works of Alexander Pope. (London: Printed for B. Lintot, Lawton Gilliver, H. Lintot, L. Gilliver, and J. Clarke, 1736). <Link to LION>
Reading The Poems of Alexander Pope. A One-Volume Edition of the Twickenham Text with Selected Annotations. Ed. John Butt. (New Haven: Yale UP, 1963).
Date of Entry
11/28/2006
