"Reason's dying lamp / Scarce brighter burns than instinct in their breast"
— Bruce, Michael (1746-1767)
Author
Place of Publication
Edinburgh
Publisher
Printed By John Paterson And Sold By All The Booksellers
Date
1796
Metaphor
"Reason's dying lamp / Scarce brighter burns than instinct in their breast"
Metaphor in Context
As when in Spring the sun's prolific beams
Have wak'd to life the insect tribes, that sport
And wanton in his rays at ev'ning mild,
Proud of their new existence, up the air,
In devious circles wheeling, they ascend,
Innumerable; the whole air is dark:--
So, by the trumpet rous'd, the sons of men,
In countless numbers, cover'd all the ground,
From frozen Greenland to the southern pole;
All who ere liv'd on earth. See Lapland's sons,
Whose zenith is the Pole; a barb'rous race!
Rough as their storms, and savage as their clime,
Unpolish'd as their bears, and but in shape
Distinguish'd from them: Reason's dying lamp
Scarce brighter burns than instinct in their breast.
With wand'ring Russians, and all those who dwelt
In Scandinavia, by the Baltic sea;
The rugged Pole, with Prussia's warlike race:
Germania pours her numbers, where the Rhine
And mighty Danube pour their flowing urns.
Have wak'd to life the insect tribes, that sport
And wanton in his rays at ev'ning mild,
Proud of their new existence, up the air,
In devious circles wheeling, they ascend,
Innumerable; the whole air is dark:--
So, by the trumpet rous'd, the sons of men,
In countless numbers, cover'd all the ground,
From frozen Greenland to the southern pole;
All who ere liv'd on earth. See Lapland's sons,
Whose zenith is the Pole; a barb'rous race!
Rough as their storms, and savage as their clime,
Unpolish'd as their bears, and but in shape
Distinguish'd from them: Reason's dying lamp
Scarce brighter burns than instinct in their breast.
With wand'ring Russians, and all those who dwelt
In Scandinavia, by the Baltic sea;
The rugged Pole, with Prussia's warlike race:
Germania pours her numbers, where the Rhine
And mighty Danube pour their flowing urns.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "reason" and "lamp" in HDIS (Poetry); found again "breast"
Date of Entry
01/20/2006
