"Ev'n from this dark confinement with delight / She [the mind] looks abroad, and prunes herself for flight; / Like an unwilling inmate longs to roam / From this dull earth, and seek her native home."
— Jenyns, Soame (1704-1787); Browne, Isaac Hawkins (1706-1760)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Date
1761, 1790
Metaphor
"Ev'n from this dark confinement with delight / She [the mind] looks abroad, and prunes herself for flight; / Like an unwilling inmate longs to roam / From this dull earth, and seek her native home."
Metaphor in Context
If to conceive how any thing can be
From shape extracted and locality
Is hard; what think you of the Deity;
His Being not the least relation bears,
As far as to the human mind appears,
To shape, or size, similitude, or place,
Cloath'd in no form, and bounded by no space.
Such then is God, a spirit pure refin'd
From all material dross, and such the human mind.
For in what part of essence can we see
More certain marks of immortality
Ev'n from this dark confinement with delight
She looks abroad, and prunes herself for flight;
Like an unwilling inmate longs to roam
From this dull earth, and seek her native home.
From shape extracted and locality
Is hard; what think you of the Deity;
His Being not the least relation bears,
As far as to the human mind appears,
To shape, or size, similitude, or place,
Cloath'd in no form, and bounded by no space.
Such then is God, a spirit pure refin'd
From all material dross, and such the human mind.
For in what part of essence can we see
More certain marks of immortality
Ev'n from this dark confinement with delight
She looks abroad, and prunes herself for flight;
Like an unwilling inmate longs to roam
From this dull earth, and seek her native home.
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
At least 4 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1761, 1770, 1790, 1793).
See Miscellaneous Pieces, in Two Volumes. ... . Containing Poems, Translations, and Essays. (London: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley, at Tully's Head, in Pall Mall, 1761).<Link to ECCO>
Text from The Works of Soame Jenyns ... In Four Volumes. Including Several Pieces Never Before Published. To Which are Prefixed, Short Sketches of the History of the Author's Family, and also of his Life; By Charles Nalson Cole (London: Printed for T. Cadell, 1790).
See Miscellaneous Pieces, in Two Volumes. ... . Containing Poems, Translations, and Essays. (London: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley, at Tully's Head, in Pall Mall, 1761).<Link to ECCO>
Text from The Works of Soame Jenyns ... In Four Volumes. Including Several Pieces Never Before Published. To Which are Prefixed, Short Sketches of the History of the Author's Family, and also of his Life; By Charles Nalson Cole (London: Printed for T. Cadell, 1790).
Date of Entry
07/18/2005
Date of Review
06/04/2013
