"This is Mr Brydone's own simile, and beyond any other which could have been chosen, brings to the mind's eye these peculiar effects of vision"
— Seward, Anna (1742-1809)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
Edinburgh
Publisher
Printed by James Ballantyne and Co. for John Ballantyne and Co. London. Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme
Date
1810
Metaphor
"This is Mr Brydone's own simile, and beyond any other which could have been chosen, brings to the mind's eye these peculiar effects of vision"
Metaphor in Context
These, as by magic, in the visual rays,
Close drawn around the mountain skirts are shown,
Seeming as lifted up to meet our gaze,
Like medals in a watry bason thrown. [1]
1. This is Mr Brydone's own simile, and beyond any other which could have been chosen, brings to the mind's eye these peculiar effects of vision. Poets and orators often find themselves obliged to accommodate great things to our perception, by comparing them to small ones. These comparisons are often happy, and sometimes sublime. "Thou spreadest out the heavens like a curtain."
Milton compares the fallen angels in Pandemonium to bees, and Homer, Menelaus, guarding the dead body of Patroclus, to afly. Instances of this sort in the noblest writers are innumerable.
Close drawn around the mountain skirts are shown,
Seeming as lifted up to meet our gaze,
Like medals in a watry bason thrown. [1]
1. This is Mr Brydone's own simile, and beyond any other which could have been chosen, brings to the mind's eye these peculiar effects of vision. Poets and orators often find themselves obliged to accommodate great things to our perception, by comparing them to small ones. These comparisons are often happy, and sometimes sublime. "Thou spreadest out the heavens like a curtain."
Milton compares the fallen angels in Pandemonium to bees, and Homer, Menelaus, guarding the dead body of Patroclus, to afly. Instances of this sort in the noblest writers are innumerable.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "mind" and "eye" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Seward, Anna. The Poetical Works of Anna Seward; with Extracts from Her Literary Correspondence. Ed. Walter Scott. 3 vols. Edinburgh: Printed by James Ballantyne and Co. for John Ballantyne and Co., 1810.
Theme
Mind's Eye
Date of Entry
04/17/2006
