"I too remember well that mental Bowl, / Which round his Table flow'd."
— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
By Woodfall for Andrew Millar
Date
1737
Metaphor
"I too remember well that mental Bowl, / Which round his Table flow'd."
Metaphor in Context
I too remember well that mental Bowl,
Which round his Table flow'd. The Serious, There,
Mix'd with the Sportive, with the Learn'd the Plain:
Mirth soften'd Wisdom, Candor temper'd Mirth;
And Wit its Honey lent, without the Sting.
Not simple Nature's unaffected Sons,
The blameless Indians, round their Forest-Chear,
In sunny Lawn or shady Covert set,
Hold more unspotted Converse; nor, of old,
Rome's awful Consuls, her Dictator-Swains,
As on the Product of their Sabine Farms
They fared, with stricter Virtue fed the Soul:
Nor yet in Athens, at an Attic Meal,
Where SOCRATES presided, fairer Truth,
More elegant Humanity, more Grace,
Wit more refin'd, or deeper Science reign'd.
(ll. 254-210, p. 157)
Which round his Table flow'd. The Serious, There,
Mix'd with the Sportive, with the Learn'd the Plain:
Mirth soften'd Wisdom, Candor temper'd Mirth;
And Wit its Honey lent, without the Sting.
Not simple Nature's unaffected Sons,
The blameless Indians, round their Forest-Chear,
In sunny Lawn or shady Covert set,
Hold more unspotted Converse; nor, of old,
Rome's awful Consuls, her Dictator-Swains,
As on the Product of their Sabine Farms
They fared, with stricter Virtue fed the Soul:
Nor yet in Athens, at an Attic Meal,
Where SOCRATES presided, fairer Truth,
More elegant Humanity, more Grace,
Wit more refin'd, or deeper Science reign'd.
(ll. 254-210, p. 157)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Thomson, James (1700-1748). Liberty, The Castle of Indolence, and other Poems. Ed. James Sambrook. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986.
Date of Entry
12/01/2003
