"Some fickle creatures boast a soul / True as the needle to the pole; / Yet shifting, like the weather, / The needle's constancy forego / For any novelty, and show / Its variations rather."

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)


Work Title
Place of Publication
Newport Pagnell
Publisher
Bull
Date
1801
Metaphor
"Some fickle creatures boast a soul / True as the needle to the pole; / Yet shifting, like the weather, / The needle's constancy forego / For any novelty, and show / Its variations rather."
Metaphor in Context
Some fickle creatures boast a soul
True as the needle to the pole;
  Yet shifting, like the weather,
The needle's constancy forego
For any novelty, and show
  Its variations rather.
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Poem first published in Bull's Poems, Translated from the French of Madame de la Mothe Guion, by the late William Cowper, Esq. To which are added some original poems of Mr. Cowper, not inserted in his works, Newport Pagnell, 1801. Reprinted in The Poems of William Cowper. 3 vols. Ed. John D. Baird and Charles Ryskamp. Oxford: Oxford UP: 1980. Vol I.
Theme
Magnetism
Date of Entry
11/30/2009

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.