"What, what is virtue, but repose of mind, / A pure ethereal calm, that knows no storm?"
— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Andrew Millar
Date
1748
Metaphor
"What, what is virtue, but repose of mind, / A pure ethereal calm, that knows no storm?"
Metaphor in Context
'What, what is virtue, but repose of mind,
A pure ethereal calm, that knows no storm;
Above the reach of wild ambition's wind,
Above those passions that this world deform,
And torture man, a proud malignant worm?
But here, instead, soft gales of passion play,
And gently stir the heart, thereby to form
A quicker sense of joy; as breezes stray
Across the enliven'd skies, and make them still more gay.
(Canto I, ll. 136-44 , p. 179)
A pure ethereal calm, that knows no storm;
Above the reach of wild ambition's wind,
Above those passions that this world deform,
And torture man, a proud malignant worm?
But here, instead, soft gales of passion play,
And gently stir the heart, thereby to form
A quicker sense of joy; as breezes stray
Across the enliven'd skies, and make them still more gay.
(Canto I, ll. 136-44 , p. 179)
Categories
Provenance
HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Over 40 entries in ECCO, at least 20 in the ESTC (1748, 1749, 1750, 1751, 1752, 1757, 1762, 1763, 1765, 1766, 1767, 1768, 1772, 1773, 1774, 1775, 1776, 1777, 1778, 1780, 1784, 1787, 1788, 1789, 1794, 1795).
See The Castle of Indolence. An Allegorical Poem. Written in Imitation of Spenser by James Thomson. (London: A. Millar, 1748). <Link to ECCO>
Reading James Thomson, Liberty, The Castle of Indolence, and other Poems, ed. James Sambrook. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986).
See The Castle of Indolence. An Allegorical Poem. Written in Imitation of Spenser by James Thomson. (London: A. Millar, 1748). <Link to ECCO>
Reading James Thomson, Liberty, The Castle of Indolence, and other Poems, ed. James Sambrook. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986).
Date of Entry
11/24/2003
