"In vain--such bliss to one alone / Of all the sons of soul was known, / And Heaven and Fancy, kindred powers, / Have now o'erturned the inspiring bowers, / Or curtained close such scene from every future view."
— Collins, William (1721-1759)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
A. Millar, in the Strand
Date
1747 [1746]
Metaphor
"In vain--such bliss to one alone / Of all the sons of soul was known, / And Heaven and Fancy, kindred powers, / Have now o'erturned the inspiring bowers, / Or curtained close such scene from every future view."
Metaphor in Context
High on some cliff to Heaven up-piled,
Of rude access, of prospect wild,
Where, tangled round the jealous steep,
Strange shades o'erbrow the valleys deep,
And holy genii guard the rock,
Its glooms embrown, its springs unlock,
While on its rich ambitious head,
An Eden, like his own, lies spread;
I view that oak, the fancied glades among,
By which as Milton lay, his evening ear,
From many a cloud that dropped ethereal dew,
Nigh sphered in heaven its native strains could hear:
On which that ancient trump he reached was hung;
Thither oft his glory greeting,
From Waller's myrtle shades retreating,
With many a vow from hope's aspiring tongue,
My trembling feet his guiding steps pursue:
In vain--such bliss to one alone
Of all the sons of soul was known,
And Heaven and Fancy, kindred powers,
Have now o'erturned the inspiring bowers,
Or curtained close such scene from every future view.
(ll. 55-76, pp. 433-5)
Of rude access, of prospect wild,
Where, tangled round the jealous steep,
Strange shades o'erbrow the valleys deep,
And holy genii guard the rock,
Its glooms embrown, its springs unlock,
While on its rich ambitious head,
An Eden, like his own, lies spread;
I view that oak, the fancied glades among,
By which as Milton lay, his evening ear,
From many a cloud that dropped ethereal dew,
Nigh sphered in heaven its native strains could hear:
On which that ancient trump he reached was hung;
Thither oft his glory greeting,
From Waller's myrtle shades retreating,
With many a vow from hope's aspiring tongue,
My trembling feet his guiding steps pursue:
In vain--such bliss to one alone
Of all the sons of soul was known,
And Heaven and Fancy, kindred powers,
Have now o'erturned the inspiring bowers,
Or curtained close such scene from every future view.
(ll. 55-76, pp. 433-5)
Categories
Provenance
Searching keywords in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
At least 29 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1747, 1763, 1765, 1768, 1770, 1771, 1773, 1775, 1776, 1777, 1780, 1781, 1786, 1787, 1796, 1796, 1799, 1800).
See Odes on Several Descriptive and Allegoric Subjects (London: Printed for A. Millar, in the Strand, [1747] [1746]). <Link to ECCO>
Text from Roger Lonsdale's The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, and Oliver Goldsmith (London and New York: Longman and Norton: 1972). <Link to LION>
See Odes on Several Descriptive and Allegoric Subjects (London: Printed for A. Millar, in the Strand, [1747] [1746]). <Link to ECCO>
Text from Roger Lonsdale's The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, and Oliver Goldsmith (London and New York: Longman and Norton: 1972). <Link to LION>
Date of Entry
11/22/2003
