"And every Object still appears to view / Like the stain'd Medium Mind's thrall'd eye looks through."
— Woodhouse, James (bap. 1735, d. 1820)
Work Title
Date
1814, 1816, 1896
Metaphor
"And every Object still appears to view / Like the stain'd Medium Mind's thrall'd eye looks through."
Metaphor in Context
No mind can weigh, or measure, Fellow-Elf,
By any standard but frail, sinful, Self!
And as its pure, or impure, views, prevail,
Will frame the measure or will poise the scale--
Will, when it feels pure philanthropic fire,
Make others heavier, and their standard high'r;
While Knaves will take off weight, or twist each Wight,
Till, like themselves, quite crooked--base--or light--
For every Parent, thro' all Nature, known,
Gives hues, and shapes, to Offsprings, like its own;
And every Object still appears to view
Like the stain'd Medium Mind's thrall'd eye looks through.
By any standard but frail, sinful, Self!
And as its pure, or impure, views, prevail,
Will frame the measure or will poise the scale--
Will, when it feels pure philanthropic fire,
Make others heavier, and their standard high'r;
While Knaves will take off weight, or twist each Wight,
Till, like themselves, quite crooked--base--or light--
For every Parent, thro' all Nature, known,
Gives hues, and shapes, to Offsprings, like its own;
And every Object still appears to view
Like the stain'd Medium Mind's thrall'd eye looks through.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "mind" and "eye" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Poem first published in its entirety in 1896. The 1814 first edition receives notice in The New Monthly Magazine (March 1815); the poem was written "in the last century" (w. 1795-1820?).
Text from The Life and Poetical Works of James Woodhouse, ed. R. I. Woodhouse, 2 vols. (London: The Leadenhall Press, 1896). <Link to Hathi Trust> <Link to LION>
Text from The Life and Poetical Works of James Woodhouse, ed. R. I. Woodhouse, 2 vols. (London: The Leadenhall Press, 1896). <Link to Hathi Trust> <Link to LION>
Theme
Mind's Eye
Date of Entry
04/18/2006
