"Therefore, I have no one notion, / That is not form'd, like the designing / Of the peristaltick motion; / Vermicular; twisting and twining; / Going to work / Just like a bottle-skrew upon a cork."
— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Date
1762
Metaphor
"Therefore, I have no one notion, / That is not form'd, like the designing / Of the peristaltick motion; / Vermicular; twisting and twining; / Going to work / Just like a bottle-skrew upon a cork."
Metaphor in Context
This stroke upon my tender brain
Remains, I doubt, impress'd for ever;
For to this day, when with much pain,
I try to think strait on, and clever,
I sidle out again, and strike
Into the beautiful oblique.
Therefore, I have no one notion,
That is not form'd, like the designing
Of the peristaltick motion;
Vermicular; twisting and twining;
Going to work
Just like a bottle-skrew upon a cork.
(pp. 117-8)
Remains, I doubt, impress'd for ever;
For to this day, when with much pain,
I try to think strait on, and clever,
I sidle out again, and strike
Into the beautiful oblique.
Therefore, I have no one notion,
That is not form'd, like the designing
Of the peristaltick motion;
Vermicular; twisting and twining;
Going to work
Just like a bottle-skrew upon a cork.
(pp. 117-8)
Provenance
Reading Jonathan Lamb's Sterne's Fiction and the Double Principle (Cambridge, 1989), 25.
Citation
John Hall Stevenson, Crazy Tales (London, 1762). <1780 edition in Google Books>
Date of Entry
10/09/2010
Date of Review
09/07/2011
