"So should all speak: so Reason speaks in all. / From the soft whispers of that god in man, / Why fly to Folly, why to Frenzy fly, / For rescue from the blessing we possess?"
— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for R. Dodsley
Date
1742
Metaphor
"So should all speak: so Reason speaks in all. / From the soft whispers of that god in man, / Why fly to Folly, why to Frenzy fly, / For rescue from the blessing we possess?"
Metaphor in Context
On all-important time, through every age,
Though much, and warm, the wise have urged, the man
Is yet unborn who duly weighs an hour.
"I've lost a day"--the prince who nobly cried,
Had been an emperor without his crown;
"Of Rome?" say, rather, lord of human race:
He spoke as if deputed by mankind.
So should all speak: so Reason speaks in all.
From the soft whispers of that god in man,
Why fly to Folly, why to Frenzy fly,
For rescue from the blessing we possess?
Time, the supreme!---time is eternity;
Pregnant with all eternity can give;
Pregnant with all that makes archangels smile.
Who murders time, he crushes in the birth
A power ethereal, only not adored.
(ll. 96-111, pp. 53-4 in CUP edition)
Though much, and warm, the wise have urged, the man
Is yet unborn who duly weighs an hour.
"I've lost a day"--the prince who nobly cried,
Had been an emperor without his crown;
"Of Rome?" say, rather, lord of human race:
He spoke as if deputed by mankind.
So should all speak: so Reason speaks in all.
From the soft whispers of that god in man,
Why fly to Folly, why to Frenzy fly,
For rescue from the blessing we possess?
Time, the supreme!---time is eternity;
Pregnant with all eternity can give;
Pregnant with all that makes archangels smile.
Who murders time, he crushes in the birth
A power ethereal, only not adored.
(ll. 96-111, pp. 53-4 in CUP edition)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Uniform title published in 9 volumes, from 1742 to 1745. At least 133 reprintings after 1745 in ESTC (1747, 1748, 1749, 1750, 1751, 1752, 1755, 1756, 1757, 1758, 1760, 1761, 1762, 1764, 1765, 1766, 1767, 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, 1773, 1774, 1775, 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779, 1780, 1782, 1783, 1785, 1786, 1787, 1788, 1789, 1790, 1791, 1792, 1793, 1794, 1795, 1796, 1797, 1798, 1800).
Edward Young, Night the Second. On Time, Death, Friendship. Humbly Inscrib'd to the Right Honourable The Earl of Wilmington (London: Printed for R. Dodsley, 1742).
Text from The Complete Works, Poetry and Prose, of the Rev. Edward Young, LL.D., 2 vols. (London: William Tegg, 1854). <Link to Google Books> Reading Edward Young, Night Thoughts, ed. Stephen Cornford (New York: Cambridge UP, 1989).
Edward Young, Night the Second. On Time, Death, Friendship. Humbly Inscrib'd to the Right Honourable The Earl of Wilmington (London: Printed for R. Dodsley, 1742).
Text from The Complete Works, Poetry and Prose, of the Rev. Edward Young, LL.D., 2 vols. (London: William Tegg, 1854). <Link to Google Books> Reading Edward Young, Night Thoughts, ed. Stephen Cornford (New York: Cambridge UP, 1989).
Date of Entry
06/05/2013
