"Vital airs" alone will not impart "health and vigour" to the soul
— Gray, Thomas (1716-1771)
Author
Place of Publication
York
Publisher
Mason
Date
1775
Metaphor
"Vital airs" alone will not impart "health and vigour" to the soul
Metaphor in Context
As sickly plants betray a niggard earth,
Whose barren bosom starves her generous birth,
Nor genial warmth nor genial juice retains
Their roots to feed and fill their verdant veins;
And as in climes, where winter holds his reign,
The soil, though fertile, will not teem in vain,
Forbids her gems to swell, her shades to rise,
Nor trusts her blossoms to the churlish skies:
So draw mankind in vain the vital airs,
Unformed, unfriended, by those kindly cares
That health and vigour to the soul impart,
Spread the young thought and warm the opening heart.
So fond Instruction on the growing powers
Of nature idly lavishes her stores,
If equal Justice with unclouded face
Smile not indulgent on the rising race,
And scatter with a free though frugal hand
Light golden showers of plenty o'er the land:
But Tyranny has fixed her empire there,
To check their tender hopes with chilling fear,
And blast the blooming promise of the year.
(ll. 1-21 p. 92-3)
Whose barren bosom starves her generous birth,
Nor genial warmth nor genial juice retains
Their roots to feed and fill their verdant veins;
And as in climes, where winter holds his reign,
The soil, though fertile, will not teem in vain,
Forbids her gems to swell, her shades to rise,
Nor trusts her blossoms to the churlish skies:
So draw mankind in vain the vital airs,
Unformed, unfriended, by those kindly cares
That health and vigour to the soul impart,
Spread the young thought and warm the opening heart.
So fond Instruction on the growing powers
Of nature idly lavishes her stores,
If equal Justice with unclouded face
Smile not indulgent on the rising race,
And scatter with a free though frugal hand
Light golden showers of plenty o'er the land:
But Tyranny has fixed her empire there,
To check their tender hopes with chilling fear,
And blast the blooming promise of the year.
(ll. 1-21 p. 92-3)
Categories
Provenance
HDIS
Citation
Ed. Roger Lonsdale. The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, and Oliver Goldsmith. London and New York: Longman and Norton: 1972
Date of Entry
11/11/2003
