" If meer Antiquities of ev'ry kind / Impress a pleasing Rev'rence on the Mind"
— Browne, Moses (1706-1787)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for A. Millar [etc.]
Date
1752
Metaphor
" If meer Antiquities of ev'ry kind / Impress a pleasing Rev'rence on the Mind"
Metaphor in Context
What is this Globe, Compact? of Earthlike Mold?
Or liquid all? an Orb of melted Gold?
Whose Action, Density, and Bulk, conspire
Perpetual to preserve his wond'rous Fire;
Cloath'd with an Atmosphere, whose Weight's Excess
May forcibly th' exhaling Parts compress,
As Magnets back their Steams retracted call;
Or Floods disgorg'd, in their own Whirlpools fall.
Else his exhausted Stores, with dread Decay
Wou'd, by long Time, burn out, and fume away.
Six thousand Years, to Life, prodigious Space!
His Beams, incessant, have refresh'd our Race,
On all th' ethereal Wand'rers shed their Light,
Yet still his Pow'rs unwasted seem to Sight.
If meer Antiquities of ev'ry kind
Impress a pleasing Rev'rence on the Mind,
The useless Coin obscur'd with eating Rust,
The shatter'd Ruin, or the mould'ring Bust,
More venerable far our Thoughts should deem
This eldest, signal Work, of Pow'r supreme.
Or liquid all? an Orb of melted Gold?
Whose Action, Density, and Bulk, conspire
Perpetual to preserve his wond'rous Fire;
Cloath'd with an Atmosphere, whose Weight's Excess
May forcibly th' exhaling Parts compress,
As Magnets back their Steams retracted call;
Or Floods disgorg'd, in their own Whirlpools fall.
Else his exhausted Stores, with dread Decay
Wou'd, by long Time, burn out, and fume away.
Six thousand Years, to Life, prodigious Space!
His Beams, incessant, have refresh'd our Race,
On all th' ethereal Wand'rers shed their Light,
Yet still his Pow'rs unwasted seem to Sight.
If meer Antiquities of ev'ry kind
Impress a pleasing Rev'rence on the Mind,
The useless Coin obscur'd with eating Rust,
The shatter'd Ruin, or the mould'ring Bust,
More venerable far our Thoughts should deem
This eldest, signal Work, of Pow'r supreme.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "coin" and "mind" in HDIS (Poetry)
Date of Entry
04/14/2005
