"Whitening, the angry Billows rowl immense, / And roar their Terrors, thro' the shuddering Soul / Of feeble Man, amidst their Fury caught, / And, dash'd upon his Fate."
— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
N. Blandford
Date
1726
Metaphor
"Whitening, the angry Billows rowl immense, / And roar their Terrors, thro' the shuddering Soul / Of feeble Man, amidst their Fury caught, / And, dash'd upon his Fate."
Metaphor in Context
LATE, in the louring Sky, red, fiery, Streaks
Begin to flush about; the reeling Clouds
Stagger with dizzy Aim, as doubting yet
Which Master to obey: while rising, slow,
Sad, in the Leaden-colour'd East, the Moon
Wears a bleak Circle round her sully'd Orb.
Then issues forth the Storm, with loud Control,
And the thin Fabrick of the pillar'd Air
O'erturns, at once. Prone, on th'uncertain Main,
Descends th'Etherial Force, and plows its Waves,
With dreadful Rift: from the mid-Deep, appears,
Surge after Surge, the rising, wat'ry, War.
Whitening, the angry Billows rowl immense,
And roar their Terrors, thro' the shuddering Soul
Of feeble Man, amidst their Fury caught,
And, dash'd upon his Fate: Then, o'er the Cliff,
Where dwells the Sea-Mew, unconfin'd, they fly,
And, hurrying, swallow up the steril Shore. (ll. 155-172)
Begin to flush about; the reeling Clouds
Stagger with dizzy Aim, as doubting yet
Which Master to obey: while rising, slow,
Sad, in the Leaden-colour'd East, the Moon
Wears a bleak Circle round her sully'd Orb.
Then issues forth the Storm, with loud Control,
And the thin Fabrick of the pillar'd Air
O'erturns, at once. Prone, on th'uncertain Main,
Descends th'Etherial Force, and plows its Waves,
With dreadful Rift: from the mid-Deep, appears,
Surge after Surge, the rising, wat'ry, War.
Whitening, the angry Billows rowl immense,
And roar their Terrors, thro' the shuddering Soul
Of feeble Man, amidst their Fury caught,
And, dash'd upon his Fate: Then, o'er the Cliff,
Where dwells the Sea-Mew, unconfin'd, they fly,
And, hurrying, swallow up the steril Shore. (ll. 155-172)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Text from Jack Lynch's transcription of 1726 printing <Link>.
See Winter. A Poem. By James Thomson. (London: N. Blandford, 1726). <Link to 2nd edition in ECCO><Link to 3rd edition in Google Books>
The poem was much revised and expanded between 1726 and 1746. I first searched metaphors in The Poetical Works (1830) through Stanford HDIS interface, later checked against earlier editions. Also reading James Sambrook's edition of The Seasons and The Castle of Indolence (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), which is based on the 1746 edition of Thomson's poem.
First collected in The Seasons, A Hymn, A Poem to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton, and Britannia, a Poem. By Mr. Thomson (1730). <Link to ECCO> Reprinted, revised and expanded in 1744, 1746. See also The Seasons. By James Thomson. (1744). <Link to ECCO> And The Seasons. By James Thomson. (1746). <Link to ECCO>
See Winter. A Poem. By James Thomson. (London: N. Blandford, 1726). <Link to 2nd edition in ECCO><Link to 3rd edition in Google Books>
The poem was much revised and expanded between 1726 and 1746. I first searched metaphors in The Poetical Works (1830) through Stanford HDIS interface, later checked against earlier editions. Also reading James Sambrook's edition of The Seasons and The Castle of Indolence (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), which is based on the 1746 edition of Thomson's poem.
First collected in The Seasons, A Hymn, A Poem to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton, and Britannia, a Poem. By Mr. Thomson (1730). <Link to ECCO> Reprinted, revised and expanded in 1744, 1746. See also The Seasons. By James Thomson. (1744). <Link to ECCO> And The Seasons. By James Thomson. (1746). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
06/20/2013
