"Let godlike reason, from her sovereign throne, / Speak the commanding word 'I will!' and it is done."
— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Andrew Millar
Date
1748
Metaphor
"Let godlike reason, from her sovereign throne, / Speak the commanding word 'I will!' and it is done."
Metaphor in Context
'Would you then learn to dissipate the band
Of the huge threatening difficulties dire,
That in the weak man's way like lions stand,
His soul appal, and damp his rising fire?
Resolve, resolve, and to be men aspire.
Exert that noblest privilege, alone,
Here to mankind indulged; control desire:
Let godlike reason, from her sovereign throne,
Speak the commanding word "I will!" and it is done.
Of the huge threatening difficulties dire,
That in the weak man's way like lions stand,
His soul appal, and damp his rising fire?
Resolve, resolve, and to be men aspire.
Exert that noblest privilege, alone,
Here to mankind indulged; control desire:
Let godlike reason, from her sovereign throne,
Speak the commanding word "I will!" and it is done.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "throne" and "reason" in 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
07/28/2004
