"How little hints awak'd the large design, / And subtle Fancy spun her variegated line?"
— Hayley, William (1745-1820)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for J. Dodsley
Date
1782
Metaphor
"How little hints awak'd the large design, / And subtle Fancy spun her variegated line?"
Metaphor in Context
In vain would Reason those nice questions solve,
Which the fine play of mental powers involve:
In Bards of ancient time, with genius fraught,
What mind can trace how thought engender'd thought,
How little hints awak'd the large design,
And subtle Fancy spun her variegated line?
Yet sober Critics, of no vulgar note,
But such as Learning's sons are proud to quote,
The progress of Homeric verse explain,
As if their souls had lodg'd in Homer's brain.
Laughs not the spirit of poetic frame,
However slightly warm'd by Fancy's flame,
When grave Bossu by System's studied laws
The Grecian Bard's ideal picture draws,
And wisely tells us, that his Song arose
As the good Parson's quiet Sermon grows;
Who, while his easy thoughts no pressure find
From hosts of images that crowd the mind,
First calmly settles on some moral text,
Then creeps--from one division--to the next?
Nor, if poetic minds more flowly drudge
Thro' the cold comments of this Gallic judge,
Will their indignant spirit less deride
That subtle Pedant's more presumptive pride,
Whose bloated page, with arrogance replete,
Imputes to Virgil his own dark conceit;
And from the tortur'd Poet dares to draw
That latent sense, which Horace never saw;
Which, if on solid próof more strongly built,
Must brand the injur'd Bard with impious guilt.
Which the fine play of mental powers involve:
In Bards of ancient time, with genius fraught,
What mind can trace how thought engender'd thought,
How little hints awak'd the large design,
And subtle Fancy spun her variegated line?
Yet sober Critics, of no vulgar note,
But such as Learning's sons are proud to quote,
The progress of Homeric verse explain,
As if their souls had lodg'd in Homer's brain.
Laughs not the spirit of poetic frame,
However slightly warm'd by Fancy's flame,
When grave Bossu by System's studied laws
The Grecian Bard's ideal picture draws,
And wisely tells us, that his Song arose
As the good Parson's quiet Sermon grows;
Who, while his easy thoughts no pressure find
From hosts of images that crowd the mind,
First calmly settles on some moral text,
Then creeps--from one division--to the next?
Nor, if poetic minds more flowly drudge
Thro' the cold comments of this Gallic judge,
Will their indignant spirit less deride
That subtle Pedant's more presumptive pride,
Whose bloated page, with arrogance replete,
Imputes to Virgil his own dark conceit;
And from the tortur'd Poet dares to draw
That latent sense, which Horace never saw;
Which, if on solid próof more strongly built,
Must brand the injur'd Bard with impious guilt.
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
4 entries in LION and ESTC (1782, 1785, 1788).
First published as An Essay on Epic Poetry; in Five Epistles to the Revd. Mr. Mason. With Notes. (London: Printed for J. Dodsley, 1782). <Link to Hathi Trust>
Reprinted in Poems and Plays, by William Hayley, Esq. (London: Printed for T. Cadell, 1785). <Link to ECCO>
Text from new edition of Poems and Plays, by William Hayley, Esq. (London: Printed for T. Cadell, 1788). See also William Hayley, Poems and Plays, by William Hayley, Esq., vol. 3 of 6 vols. (London: Printed for T. Cadell, 1785). <Link to ECCO>
First published as An Essay on Epic Poetry; in Five Epistles to the Revd. Mr. Mason. With Notes. (London: Printed for J. Dodsley, 1782). <Link to Hathi Trust>
Reprinted in Poems and Plays, by William Hayley, Esq. (London: Printed for T. Cadell, 1785). <Link to ECCO>
Text from new edition of Poems and Plays, by William Hayley, Esq. (London: Printed for T. Cadell, 1788). See also William Hayley, Poems and Plays, by William Hayley, Esq., vol. 3 of 6 vols. (London: Printed for T. Cadell, 1785). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
03/07/2006
