"Who heaves old Ocean, and who wings the storms, / Pours fierce Ambition in a Caesar's mind."
— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Date
1733-4
Metaphor
"Who heaves old Ocean, and who wings the storms, / Pours fierce Ambition in a Caesar's mind."
Metaphor in Context
But errs not Nature from this gracious end,
From burning suns when livid deaths descend,
When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep
Towns to one grave, or nations to the deep?
'No ('tis reply'd) the first Almighty Cause
Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws;
Th'exceptions few; some change since all began,
And what created perfect?' Why then Man?
If the great end be human happiness,
Then Nature deviates, and can Man do less?
As much that end a constant course requires
Of show'rs and sunshine, as of man's desires,
As much eternal springs and cloudless skies,
As men for ever temp'rate, calm, and wise.
If plagues or earthquakes break not heav'n's design,
Why then a Borgia or a Catiline?
Who knows but he, whose hand the light'ning forms,
Who heaves old Ocean, and who wings the storms,
Pours fierce Ambition in a Caesar's mind,
Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind!
From pride, from pride, our very reas'ning springs?
Account for moral, as for nat'ral things:
Why charge we heav'n in those, in these acquit?
In both, to reason right, is to submit.
(Epistle I, ll. 141-164, pp. 509-10)
From burning suns when livid deaths descend,
When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep
Towns to one grave, or nations to the deep?
'No ('tis reply'd) the first Almighty Cause
Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws;
Th'exceptions few; some change since all began,
And what created perfect?' Why then Man?
If the great end be human happiness,
Then Nature deviates, and can Man do less?
As much that end a constant course requires
Of show'rs and sunshine, as of man's desires,
As much eternal springs and cloudless skies,
As men for ever temp'rate, calm, and wise.
If plagues or earthquakes break not heav'n's design,
Why then a Borgia or a Catiline?
Who knows but he, whose hand the light'ning forms,
Who heaves old Ocean, and who wings the storms,
Pours fierce Ambition in a Caesar's mind,
Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind!
From pride, from pride, our very reas'ning springs?
Account for moral, as for nat'ral things:
Why charge we heav'n in those, in these acquit?
In both, to reason right, is to submit.
(Epistle I, ll. 141-164, pp. 509-10)
Categories
Provenance
Rereading Pope's Essay
Citation
Over 165 entries in ESTC (1733, 1734, 1735, 1736, 1743, 1744, 1745, 1746, 1747, 1748, 1749, 1750, 1751, 1753, 1754, 1755, 1756, 1758, 1760, 1761, 1762, 1763, 1764, 1766, 1767, 1768, 1770, 1771, 1772, 1774, 1776, 1777, 1778, 1780, 1781, 1783, 1784, 1785, 1786, 1787, 1788, 1789, 1790, 1791, 1792, 1794, 1795, 1796, 1797, 1798, 1799, 1800).
See An Essay on Man, Being the First Book of Ethic epistles. To Henry St. John, L. Bolingbroke. (London: Printed by John Wright, for Lawton Gilliver, 1734). <Link to ESTC><Link to ESTC><Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO-TCP>
See also An Essay on Man: In Epistles to a Friend. (Dublin: Printed by S. Powell, for George Risk, George Ewing, and William Smith, 1734). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
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).
See An Essay on Man, Being the First Book of Ethic epistles. To Henry St. John, L. Bolingbroke. (London: Printed by John Wright, for Lawton Gilliver, 1734). <Link to ESTC><Link to ESTC><Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO-TCP>
See also An Essay on Man: In Epistles to a Friend. (Dublin: Printed by S. Powell, for George Risk, George Ewing, and William Smith, 1734). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
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
05/27/2004
