"Thou woost wel, who shal an hous edifie / Gooth nat ther-to withoute avisament / If he be wys, for with his mental ye / First is it seen, purposid, cast & ment, / How it shal wroght been, elles al is shent."

— Hoccleve [Occleve], Thomas (c.1367-1426)


Date
c. 1420
Metaphor
"Thou woost wel, who shal an hous edifie / Gooth nat ther-to withoute avisament / If he be wys, for with his mental ye / First is it seen, purposid, cast & ment, / How it shal wroght been, elles al is shent."
Metaphor in Context
92.
Thou woost wel, who shal an hous edifie
Gooth nat ther-to withoute avisament
If he be wys, for with his mental ye
First is it seen, purposid, cast & ment,
How it shal wroght been, elles al is shent
.
Certes, for the deffaute of good forsighte,
Mis-tyden thynges, þat wel tyde mighte.
(p. 133, ll. 638-44)
Provenance
Cited in a talk by A. C. Spearing, "The Nature of Medieval Narrative," Sixth Annual Robert Kellogg Memorial Lecture, University of Virginia (April 30, 2012).
Citation
See Hoccleve's Works: I. The Minor Poems, ed. Frederick J. Furnivall (London: Published for The Early English Text Society by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1892). <Link to Google Books>
Theme
Mind's Eye
Date of Entry
05/01/2012

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