"[F]or his mind / Had grown Suspicion's sanctuary, and chose, / For its own cruel sacrifice, the kind, / 'Gainst whom he raged with fury strange and blind. / But he was phrensied."
— Byron, George Gordon Noel, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824)
Date
1816
Metaphor
"[F]or his mind / Had grown Suspicion's sanctuary, and chose, / For its own cruel sacrifice, the kind, / 'Gainst whom he raged with fury strange and blind. / But he was phrensied."
Metaphor in Context
His life was one long war with self-sought foes,
Or friends by him self-banished; for his mind
Had grown Suspicion's sanctuary, and chose,
For its own cruel sacrifice, the kind,
'Gainst whom he raged with fury strange and blind.
But he was phrensied,--wherefore, who may know?
Since cause might be which Skill could never find;
But he was phrensied by disease or woe,
To that worst pitch of all, which wears a reasoning show.
(p. 871, ll. 752-760)
Or friends by him self-banished; for his mind
Had grown Suspicion's sanctuary, and chose,
For its own cruel sacrifice, the kind,
'Gainst whom he raged with fury strange and blind.
But he was phrensied,--wherefore, who may know?
Since cause might be which Skill could never find;
But he was phrensied by disease or woe,
To that worst pitch of all, which wears a reasoning show.
(p. 871, ll. 752-760)
Categories
Provenance
Reading in Perkins. Text from HDIS.
Citation
Perkins, David, ed. English Romantic Writers. 2nd ed. Harcourt Brace Publishers, 1995.
Date of Entry
05/27/2008
