"Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain, / Our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain."
— Rogers, Samuel (1763-1855)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by J. Davis and Sold by T. Cadell
Date
1792
Metaphor
"Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain, / Our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain."
Metaphor in Context
Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain,
Our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain.
Awake but one, and lo, what myriads rise!
Each stamps its image as the other flies.
Each, as the various avenues of sense
Delight or sorrow to the soul dispense,
Brightens or fades; yet all, with magic art,
Control the latent fibres of the heart.
As studious Prospero's mysterious spell
Drew every subject-spirit to his cell;
Each, at thy call, advances or retires,
As judgment dictates or the scene inspires.
Each thrills the seat of sense, that sacred source
Whence the fine nerves direct their mazy course,
And thro' the frame invisibly convey
The subtle, quick vibrations as they play;
Man's little universe at once o'ercast,
At once illumined when the cloud is past.
Our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain.
Awake but one, and lo, what myriads rise!
Each stamps its image as the other flies.
Each, as the various avenues of sense
Delight or sorrow to the soul dispense,
Brightens or fades; yet all, with magic art,
Control the latent fibres of the heart.
As studious Prospero's mysterious spell
Drew every subject-spirit to his cell;
Each, at thy call, advances or retires,
As judgment dictates or the scene inspires.
Each thrills the seat of sense, that sacred source
Whence the fine nerves direct their mazy course,
And thro' the frame invisibly convey
The subtle, quick vibrations as they play;
Man's little universe at once o'ercast,
At once illumined when the cloud is past.
Categories
Provenance
Reading; found again in G.J. Barker-Benfield's The Culture of Sensibility (Chicago and London: U of Chicago Press, 1996), 18, where the metaphor is wrongly attributed to Akenside.
Citation
14 entries in ESTC (1792, 1793, 1794, 1795, 1796, 1798, 1799, 1800). First published in 1792; four editions within the year.
See The Pleasures of Memory, a Poem, in Two Parts. By the Author of "An Ode to Superstition, With Some Other Poems." (London: Printed by J. Davis, 1792) <Link to ECCO>. See also <1793 edition in Google Books>
Text from The Poetical Works of Samuel Rogers (1875).
See The Pleasures of Memory, a Poem, in Two Parts. By the Author of "An Ode to Superstition, With Some Other Poems." (London: Printed by J. Davis, 1792) <Link to ECCO>. See also <1793 edition in Google Books>
Text from The Poetical Works of Samuel Rogers (1875).
Date of Entry
08/16/2012
