"But what is man in his own proud esteem? / Hear him, himself the poet and the theme: / A monarch clothed with majesty and awe, / His mind his kingdom, and his will his law, / Grace in his mien and glory in his eyes, / Supreme on Earth and worthy of the skies, / Strength in his heart, dominion in his nod, / And, thunderbolts excepted, quite a God!"
— Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for J. Johnson
Date
1782
Metaphor
"But what is man in his own proud esteem? / Hear him, himself the poet and the theme: / A monarch clothed with majesty and awe, / His mind his kingdom, and his will his law, / Grace in his mien and glory in his eyes, / Supreme on Earth and worthy of the skies, / Strength in his heart, dominion in his nod, / And, thunderbolts excepted, quite a God!"
Metaphor in Context
How readily upon the gospel plan,
That question has its answer,--what is man?
Sinful and weak, in every sense a wretch,
An instrument whose chords upon the stretch
And strain'd to the last screw that he can bear,
Yield only discord in his Maker's ear:
Once the blest residence of truth divine,
Glorious as Solyma's interior shrine,
Where, in his own oracular abode,
Dwelt visibly the light-creating God;
But made long since, like Babylon of old,
A den of mischiefs never to be told:
And she once mistress of the realms around,
Now scattered wide and no where to be found,
As soon shall rise and reascend the throne,
By native power and energy her own,
As Nature at her own peculiar cost,
Restore to man the glories he has lost.
Go bid the winter cease to chill the year,
Replace the wandering comet in his sphere,
Then boast (but wait for that unhoped for hour)
The self-restoring arm of human power!
But what is man in his own proud esteem?
Hear him, himself the poet and the theme:
A monarch clothed with majesty and awe,
His mind his kingdom, and his will his law,
Grace in his mien and glory in his eyes,
Supreme on Earth and worthy of the skies,
Strength in his heart, dominion in his nod,
And, thunderbolts excepted, quite a God!
(ll. 381-410, pp. 290-1 in Baird and Ryskamp)
That question has its answer,--what is man?
Sinful and weak, in every sense a wretch,
An instrument whose chords upon the stretch
And strain'd to the last screw that he can bear,
Yield only discord in his Maker's ear:
Once the blest residence of truth divine,
Glorious as Solyma's interior shrine,
Where, in his own oracular abode,
Dwelt visibly the light-creating God;
But made long since, like Babylon of old,
A den of mischiefs never to be told:
And she once mistress of the realms around,
Now scattered wide and no where to be found,
As soon shall rise and reascend the throne,
By native power and energy her own,
As Nature at her own peculiar cost,
Restore to man the glories he has lost.
Go bid the winter cease to chill the year,
Replace the wandering comet in his sphere,
Then boast (but wait for that unhoped for hour)
The self-restoring arm of human power!
But what is man in his own proud esteem?
Hear him, himself the poet and the theme:
A monarch clothed with majesty and awe,
His mind his kingdom, and his will his law,
Grace in his mien and glory in his eyes,
Supreme on Earth and worthy of the skies,
Strength in his heart, dominion in his nod,
And, thunderbolts excepted, quite a God!
(ll. 381-410, pp. 290-1 in Baird and Ryskamp)
Categories
Provenance
HDIS
Citation
At least entries in ECCO and ESTC (1782, 1786, 1787, 1788, 1790, 1792, 1793, 1794, 1797, 1798, 1800, 1799, 1800).
See Poems by William Cowper (London: Printed for J. Johnson, 1782). <Link to ESTC> <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Text from The Works of William Cowper (London: Baldwin and Cradock, 1835-1837).
Reading The Poems of William Cowper, 3 vols. ed. John D. Baird and Charles Ryskamp (Oxford: Oxford UP: 1980), I, pp. 280-296.
See Poems by William Cowper (London: Printed for J. Johnson, 1782). <Link to ESTC> <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Text from The Works of William Cowper (London: Baldwin and Cradock, 1835-1837).
Reading The Poems of William Cowper, 3 vols. ed. John D. Baird and Charles Ryskamp (Oxford: Oxford UP: 1980), I, pp. 280-296.
Date of Entry
12/15/2003
Date of Review
06/01/2004
