"And if again, pray mind, Thy head and Mine / Are form'd and stuff'd quite diff'rent from each other; / I n'er shal understand one single line,/ Thô I shou'd read thy Folio ten times over."
— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
A. R. Waller
Date
w. 1721 [published 1907]
Metaphor
"And if again, pray mind, Thy head and Mine / Are form'd and stuff'd quite diff'rent from each other; / I n'er shal understand one single line,/ Thô I shou'd read thy Folio ten times over."
Metaphor in Context
Lock, wou'd the Human understanding show;
In vain he squanders Thought & Time and Ink.
People themselves most certainly must know,
Better than He cou'd tell, how they can think?
I fancy things may quickly be agreed,
If once for All we state our notions right;
And I (thank gracious Heav'n) need never read
One line that Thou, Friend Lock, did'st ever write.
Sic argumentum pono: if my head
Had been exactly made, and fill'd like Thine,
I shou'd have known what ever thou had'st said,
Tho in Thy work I had not read a line.
And if again, pray mind, Thy head and Mine
Are form'd and stuff'd quite diff'rent from each other;
I n'er shal understand one single line,
Thô I shou'd read thy Folio ten times over.
(ll. 1-16, pp. 639-40)
In vain he squanders Thought & Time and Ink.
People themselves most certainly must know,
Better than He cou'd tell, how they can think?
I fancy things may quickly be agreed,
If once for All we state our notions right;
And I (thank gracious Heav'n) need never read
One line that Thou, Friend Lock, did'st ever write.
Sic argumentum pono: if my head
Had been exactly made, and fill'd like Thine,
I shou'd have known what ever thou had'st said,
Tho in Thy work I had not read a line.
And if again, pray mind, Thy head and Mine
Are form'd and stuff'd quite diff'rent from each other;
I n'er shal understand one single line,
Thô I shou'd read thy Folio ten times over.
(ll. 1-16, pp. 639-40)
Categories
Provenance
HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Prior, Matthew, The Literary Works of Matthew Prior. Ed. H. Bunker Wright and Monroe K. Spears. 2 vols. Second Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971.
Theme
Lockean Philosophy
Date of Entry
01/05/2004
