"Tho' his capacious Head, the sacred Ark! / Where a whole World of Science does imbark, / Has steer'd and labour'd all it can, / As Reason fill'd the Sail, / Yet what does all this fruitless search avail?"
— Woodward, George (b. 1708?)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
Oxford
Publisher
Printed at the Clarendon Printing-House
Date
1730
Metaphor
"Tho' his capacious Head, the sacred Ark! / Where a whole World of Science does imbark, / Has steer'd and labour'd all it can, / As Reason fill'd the Sail, / Yet what does all this fruitless search avail?"
Metaphor in Context
IV.
Man! fond, mistaken Man!
Tho' his capacious Head, the sacred Ark!
Where a whole World of Science does imbark,
Has steer'd and labour'd all it can,
As Reason fill'd the Sail,
Yet what does all this fruitless search avail?
Learn'd Wretch! he fondly would pretend,
His Port is gain'd, his Race is run,
And all his tiresom Voy'ge is done;
Is done! how far? but just enough to shew,
That all his Knowledge is but empty Show,
A Pageant Dream! a Point! an End!
No wiser thro' the tedious Course he ran
Fond! mistaken Man!
Than when he first began.
Man! fond, mistaken Man!
Tho' his capacious Head, the sacred Ark!
Where a whole World of Science does imbark,
Has steer'd and labour'd all it can,
As Reason fill'd the Sail,
Yet what does all this fruitless search avail?
Learn'd Wretch! he fondly would pretend,
His Port is gain'd, his Race is run,
And all his tiresom Voy'ge is done;
Is done! how far? but just enough to shew,
That all his Knowledge is but empty Show,
A Pageant Dream! a Point! an End!
No wiser thro' the tedious Course he ran
Fond! mistaken Man!
Than when he first began.
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Only 1 entry in ESTC (1730).
Poems on Several Occasions. By Mr. George Woodward. (Oxford: Printed at the Clarendon Printing-House, 1730). <Link to ESTC>
Poems on Several Occasions. By Mr. George Woodward. (Oxford: Printed at the Clarendon Printing-House, 1730). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
03/25/2013
