"Great Nature! workmanship divine, / What human thought can trace thy line!"
— Colvill, Robert (d. 1788)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Sold by J. Wilkie and J. Dodsley
Date
1771
Metaphor
"Great Nature! workmanship divine, / What human thought can trace thy line!"
Metaphor in Context
Then, pleas'd with her ambitious course, she flies
Through the fix'd stars; sees round each blazing sun
Unnumber'd systems in their journey run,
To gild th' extended space of yet untravel'd skies.
Or tends the rapid comet in his flight;
Returning dread from Heav'n's most distant pole,
He wheels the centre like a fiery goal;
Then flies again to vex the realms of ancient Night.
Great Nature! workmanship divine,
What human thought can trace thy line!
Fair Idea of th' eternal Mind,
How glorious He who first design'd
Thy glorious frame! sole great and good,
When shall his ways be understood!
His works since hid through Nature's bound,
How shall Heav'n's Architect, himself unsearchable, be found?
Through the fix'd stars; sees round each blazing sun
Unnumber'd systems in their journey run,
To gild th' extended space of yet untravel'd skies.
Or tends the rapid comet in his flight;
Returning dread from Heav'n's most distant pole,
He wheels the centre like a fiery goal;
Then flies again to vex the realms of ancient Night.
Great Nature! workmanship divine,
What human thought can trace thy line!
Fair Idea of th' eternal Mind,
How glorious He who first design'd
Thy glorious frame! sole great and good,
When shall his ways be understood!
His works since hid through Nature's bound,
How shall Heav'n's Architect, himself unsearchable, be found?
Categories
Provenance
Searching "mind" and "line" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Text from Occasional Poems; by Mr Colvill, 2nd edition (London: J. Wilkie and J. Dodsley, 1771). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
05/11/2005
