"As into air the purer spirits flow, / And sep'rate from their kindred dregs below; / So flew the soul to its congenial place"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)


Place of Publication
London
Date
1717, 1736
Metaphor
"As into air the purer spirits flow, / And sep'rate from their kindred dregs below; / So flew the soul to its congenial place"
Metaphor in Context
From these perhaps (e'er nature bade her die)
Fate snatch'd her early to the pitying sky.
As into air the purer spirits flow,
And sep'rate from their kindred dregs below;
So flew the soul to its congenial place
,
Nor left one virtue to redeem her Race.
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).
Date of Entry
11/28/2006

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.