"All deaths, all tortures, in one pang combin'd, / Are gentle to the tempest of the mind."
— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for A. Millar
Date
1730
Metaphor
"All deaths, all tortures, in one pang combin'd, / Are gentle to the tempest of the mind."
Metaphor in Context
MASINISSIA
[alone]
What dreadful havoc in the human breast
The passions make, when unconfin'd, and mad,
They burst, unguided by the mental eye,
The light of reason; which in various ways
Points them to good, or turns them back from ill.
O save me from the tumult of the soul!
From the wild beasts within!-—For circling sands,
When the swift whirlwind whelms them o'er the lands;
The roaring deeps that to the clouds arise,
While thwarting thick the mingled lightning flies;
The monster-brood to which this land gives birth,
The blazing city, and the gaping earth;
All deaths, all tortures, in one pang combin'd,
Are gentle to the tempest of the mind.
(I.v.6-14)
[alone]
What dreadful havoc in the human breast
The passions make, when unconfin'd, and mad,
They burst, unguided by the mental eye,
The light of reason; which in various ways
Points them to good, or turns them back from ill.
O save me from the tumult of the soul!
From the wild beasts within!-—For circling sands,
When the swift whirlwind whelms them o'er the lands;
The roaring deeps that to the clouds arise,
While thwarting thick the mingled lightning flies;
The monster-brood to which this land gives birth,
The blazing city, and the gaping earth;
All deaths, all tortures, in one pang combin'd,
Are gentle to the tempest of the mind.
(I.v.6-14)
Categories
Provenance
Reading Julie K. Ellison's Cato's Tears: The Making of Anglo-American Emotion (Chicago and London: U. of Chicago Press, 1999), 63.
Citation
At least 22 entries in the ESTC (1730, 1735, 1736, 1738, 1744, ).
See James Thomas. The Tragedy of Sophonisba. London: Printed for A. Millar, 1730. <Link to UVA Library>
See James Thomas. The Tragedy of Sophonisba. London: Printed for A. Millar, 1730. <Link to UVA Library>
Date of Entry
06/16/2010
