"Enlarge the Purlieu of my narrow Mind: / In Colours, plain, expose to Reason's Eye, / What, yet, to Reason Nature does deny"
— Smedley, Jonathan (1671-1729)
Place of Publication
London
Date
1730
Metaphor
"Enlarge the Purlieu of my narrow Mind: / In Colours, plain, expose to Reason's Eye, / What, yet, to Reason Nature does deny"
Metaphor in Context
O Microscopia! Goddess heavenly bright,
Which to an Angel's Ken has stretch'd my Sight,
Stop not thy Bounty, but be still more kind,
Enlarge the Purlieu of my narrow Mind:
In Colours, plain, expose to Reason's Eye,
What, yet, to Reason Nature does deny:
What 'tis to think, teach my amazed Thought;
And let, O! let me, whence I came, be taught;
Be taught, what am I? Where, at Death, I go?
What Spirits do above, what Shades, below?
Open of future Scenes the hidden Doom;
Explain the present and the Things to come;
And then, in pious Hymns and grateful Lays
O Goddess! I'll enshrine thy deathless Praise.
Which to an Angel's Ken has stretch'd my Sight,
Stop not thy Bounty, but be still more kind,
Enlarge the Purlieu of my narrow Mind:
In Colours, plain, expose to Reason's Eye,
What, yet, to Reason Nature does deny:
What 'tis to think, teach my amazed Thought;
And let, O! let me, whence I came, be taught;
Be taught, what am I? Where, at Death, I go?
What Spirits do above, what Shades, below?
Open of future Scenes the hidden Doom;
Explain the present and the Things to come;
And then, in pious Hymns and grateful Lays
O Goddess! I'll enshrine thy deathless Praise.
Categories
Theme
Mind's Eye
Date of Entry
09/14/2009
