"My mind became the book through which I grew / Wise in all human wisdom"
— Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for C. and J. Ollier
Date
1817, 1818
Metaphor
"My mind became the book through which I grew / Wise in all human wisdom"
Metaphor in Context
My mind became the book through which I grew
Wise in all human wisdom, and its cave,
Which like a mine I rifled through and through,
To me the keeping of its secrets gave --
One mind, the type of all, the moveless wave
Whose calm reflects all moving things that are,
Necessity, and love, and life, the grave,
And sympathy, fountains of hope and fear;
Justice, and truth, and time, and the world's natural sphere.
(VII, ll. 3100-8)
Wise in all human wisdom, and its cave,
Which like a mine I rifled through and through,
To me the keeping of its secrets gave --
One mind, the type of all, the moveless wave
Whose calm reflects all moving things that are,
Necessity, and love, and life, the grave,
And sympathy, fountains of hope and fear;
Justice, and truth, and time, and the world's natural sphere.
(VII, ll. 3100-8)
Categories
Provenance
Reading Reisner, Thomas A. "Tablua Rasa: Shelley's Metaphor of Mind." Ariel IV.2 (197): 90-102. p. 92.
Citation
The Revolt of Islam. A Poem in Twelve Cantos. (London: C. and J. Ollier, 1817) <Link to 1829 edition in Google Books>.
Originally published as Laon and Cythna. Text from the University of Adelaide's "eBooks@Adelaide." http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/s/shelley/percy_bysshe/
Originally published as Laon and Cythna. Text from the University of Adelaide's "eBooks@Adelaide." http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/s/shelley/percy_bysshe/
Date of Entry
10/03/2006
