"Yet tho' to human Sight invisible, / If She, whom I implore, Urania deign, / With Euphrasy to purge away the Mists / Which, humid, dim the Mirror of the Mind; / (As Venus gave Æneas to behold / The angry Gods with Flame o'erwhelming Troy, / Neptune and Pallas,) not in vain, I'll sing / The mystick Terrors of this gloomy Reign."
— Thompson, William (bap. 1712, d.c. 1766)
Work Title
Date
1746, 1757
Metaphor
"Yet tho' to human Sight invisible, / If She, whom I implore, Urania deign, / With Euphrasy to purge away the Mists / Which, humid, dim the Mirror of the Mind; / (As Venus gave Æneas to behold / The angry Gods with Flame o'erwhelming Troy, / Neptune and Pallas,) not in vain, I'll sing / The mystick Terrors of this gloomy Reign."
Metaphor in Context
Death was not Man's Inheritance, but Life
Immortal, but a Paradise of Bliss,
Unfading Beauty, and eternal Spring,
(The cloudess Blaze of Innocence's Reign:)
The Gifts of God's Right-Hand! till monstrous Sin,
The motly Child of Satan and of Hell,
Invited dire Disease into the World,
And her distorted Brood of ugly Shapes,
Echidna's Brood! and fix'd their curs'd Abode
On Earth, invisible to human Sight,
The Portion and the Scourge of mortal Man.
Yet tho' to human Sight invisible,
If She, whom I implore, Urania deign,
With Euphrasy to purge away the Mists
Which, humid, dim the Mirror of the Mind;
(As Venus gave Æneas to behold
The angry Gods with Flame o'erwhelming Troy,
Neptune and Pallas,) not in vain, I'll sing
The mystick Terrors of this gloomy Reign:
And, led by her, with dangerous Courage press
Through dreary Paths, and Haunts, by mortal Foot
Rare visited; unless by Thee, I ween,
Father of Fancy, of descriptive Verse,
And shadowy Beings, gentle Edmund, hight
Spenser! the Sweetest of the tuneful Throng,
Or recent, or of eld. Creative Bard,
Thy Springs unlock, expand thy fairy Scenes,
Thy unexhausted Stores of Fancy spread,
And with thy Images inrich my Song.
Immortal, but a Paradise of Bliss,
Unfading Beauty, and eternal Spring,
(The cloudess Blaze of Innocence's Reign:)
The Gifts of God's Right-Hand! till monstrous Sin,
The motly Child of Satan and of Hell,
Invited dire Disease into the World,
And her distorted Brood of ugly Shapes,
Echidna's Brood! and fix'd their curs'd Abode
On Earth, invisible to human Sight,
The Portion and the Scourge of mortal Man.
Yet tho' to human Sight invisible,
If She, whom I implore, Urania deign,
With Euphrasy to purge away the Mists
Which, humid, dim the Mirror of the Mind;
(As Venus gave Æneas to behold
The angry Gods with Flame o'erwhelming Troy,
Neptune and Pallas,) not in vain, I'll sing
The mystick Terrors of this gloomy Reign:
And, led by her, with dangerous Courage press
Through dreary Paths, and Haunts, by mortal Foot
Rare visited; unless by Thee, I ween,
Father of Fancy, of descriptive Verse,
And shadowy Beings, gentle Edmund, hight
Spenser! the Sweetest of the tuneful Throng,
Or recent, or of eld. Creative Bard,
Thy Springs unlock, expand thy fairy Scenes,
Thy unexhausted Stores of Fancy spread,
And with thy Images inrich my Song.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "mind" and "mirror" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
At least 2 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1746, 1757).
First published as Sickness. A Poem. In Three Books. By William Thompson, M. A. of Queen’s College, Oxon. (London: Printed for R. Dodsley, 1746). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO>
Text from Poems on Several Occasions, To which is added Gondibert and Birtha, A Tragedy. By William Thompson (Oxford: Printed at the Theatre, 1757).
Some verses found in The Christian's Pocket Library (New York: 1796), vol. 1 of 2.
First published as Sickness. A Poem. In Three Books. By William Thompson, M. A. of Queen’s College, Oxon. (London: Printed for R. Dodsley, 1746). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO>
Text from Poems on Several Occasions, To which is added Gondibert and Birtha, A Tragedy. By William Thompson (Oxford: Printed at the Theatre, 1757).
Some verses found in The Christian's Pocket Library (New York: 1796), vol. 1 of 2.
Date of Entry
06/28/2005
