"Thou didst say thou knewest / A Jew, whose spirit is a chronicle / Of strange and secret and forgotten things."
— Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
C. & J. Ollier
Date
1822
Metaphor
"Thou didst say thou knewest / A Jew, whose spirit is a chronicle / Of strange and secret and forgotten things."
Metaphor in Context
MAHMUD
The times do cast strange shadows
On those who watch and who must rule their course,
Lest they, being first in peril as in glory,
Be whelmed in the fierce ebb:--and these are of them.
Thrice has a gloomy vision hunted me
As thus from sleep into the troubled day;
It shakes me as the tempest shakes the sea,
Leaving no figure upon memory's glass.
Would that--no matter. Thou didst say thou knewest
A Jew, whose spirit is a chronicle
Of strange and secret and forgotten things.
I bade thee summon him:--'tis said his tribe
Dream, and are wise interpreters of dreams.
(ll. 124-136)
The times do cast strange shadows
On those who watch and who must rule their course,
Lest they, being first in peril as in glory,
Be whelmed in the fierce ebb:--and these are of them.
Thrice has a gloomy vision hunted me
As thus from sleep into the troubled day;
It shakes me as the tempest shakes the sea,
Leaving no figure upon memory's glass.
Would that--no matter. Thou didst say thou knewest
A Jew, whose spirit is a chronicle
Of strange and secret and forgotten things.
I bade thee summon him:--'tis said his tribe
Dream, and are wise interpreters of dreams.
(ll. 124-136)
Categories
Provenance
Reading Reisner, Thomas A. "Tablua Rasa: Shelley's Metaphor of Mind." Ariel IV.2 (197): 90-102. p. 98.
Citation
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
