"'Tis hard, he cries, to bring to sudden sight / Ideas that have wing'd their distant flight."
— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744), Broome, W. and Fenton, E.
Date
1725-6
Metaphor
"'Tis hard, he cries, to bring to sudden sight / Ideas that have wing'd their distant flight."
Metaphor in Context
'Tis hard, he cries, to bring to sudden sight
Ideas that have wing'd their distant flight:
Rare on the mind those images are trac'd,
Whose footsteps twenty winters have defac'd:
But what I can, receive.--In ample mode,
A robe of military purple flow'd
O'er all his frame: illustrious on his breast,
The double-clasping gold the King confest.
In the rich woof a hound Mosaic drawn
Bore on full stretch, and seiz'd a dappl'd fawn:
Deep in the neck his fangs indent their hold;
They pant, and struggle in the moving gold.
Fine as a filmy web beneath it shon
A vest, that dazzl'd like a cloudless sun:
The female train who round him throng'd to gaze,
In silent wonder sigh'd unwilling praise.
A sabre, when the warrior press'd to part,
I gave, enamel'd with Vulcanian art:
A mantle purple-ting'd, and radiant vest,
Dimension'd equal to his size, exprest
Affection grateful to my honour'd guest.
A fav'rite herald in his train I knew,
His visage solemn sad, of sable hue:
Short woolly curls o'erfleec'd his bending head,
O'er which a promontory-shoulder spread:
Eurybates! in whose large soul alone
Ulysses view'd an image of his own.
Ideas that have wing'd their distant flight:
Rare on the mind those images are trac'd,
Whose footsteps twenty winters have defac'd:
But what I can, receive.--In ample mode,
A robe of military purple flow'd
O'er all his frame: illustrious on his breast,
The double-clasping gold the King confest.
In the rich woof a hound Mosaic drawn
Bore on full stretch, and seiz'd a dappl'd fawn:
Deep in the neck his fangs indent their hold;
They pant, and struggle in the moving gold.
Fine as a filmy web beneath it shon
A vest, that dazzl'd like a cloudless sun:
The female train who round him throng'd to gaze,
In silent wonder sigh'd unwilling praise.
A sabre, when the warrior press'd to part,
I gave, enamel'd with Vulcanian art:
A mantle purple-ting'd, and radiant vest,
Dimension'd equal to his size, exprest
Affection grateful to my honour'd guest.
A fav'rite herald in his train I knew,
His visage solemn sad, of sable hue:
Short woolly curls o'erfleec'd his bending head,
O'er which a promontory-shoulder spread:
Eurybates! in whose large soul alone
Ulysses view'd an image of his own.
Categories
Provenance
HDIS
Date of Entry
10/28/2003
