"What is the Soul of Man but Light, / Drawn down from thy transcendant height? / What but an Intellectual Beam? / A Spark of thy immortal Flame?"
— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for R. Wellington and Thomas Osborne
Date
1700, 1702
Metaphor
"What is the Soul of Man but Light, / Drawn down from thy transcendant height? / What but an Intellectual Beam? / A Spark of thy immortal Flame?"
Metaphor in Context
What is the Soul of Man but Light,
Drawn down from thy transcendant height?
What but an Intellectual Beam?
A Spark of thy immortal Flame?
For as thou rulest with gladsome Rays
The greater World, so this the less,
And like thy own diffusive Soul,
Shoots Life and Vigour thro' the whole.
Since then from thee at first it came,
To thee, tho' clogg'd, it points its flame,
And conscious of superiour Birth,
Despises this unkindred Earth.
(III.ii, "Hymn to the Sun," by W. Shippen, p. 34)
Drawn down from thy transcendant height?
What but an Intellectual Beam?
A Spark of thy immortal Flame?
For as thou rulest with gladsome Rays
The greater World, so this the less,
And like thy own diffusive Soul,
Shoots Life and Vigour thro' the whole.
Since then from thee at first it came,
To thee, tho' clogg'd, it points its flame,
And conscious of superiour Birth,
Despises this unkindred Earth.
(III.ii, "Hymn to the Sun," by W. Shippen, p. 34)
Categories
Provenance
C-H Lion
Citation
First performed December, 1700. Twenty-three entries in ESTC (1701, 1702, 1714, 1715, 1720, 1726, 1727, 1728, 1733, 1735, 1760, 1761, 1764, 1777, 1781, 1790, 1792, 1795).
The second edition includes "the addition of a new scene." The Ambitious Step-Mother. A Tragedy. As it is Acted at the New Theatre in Little-Lincolns-Inn-Fields. By Her Majesties Servants. Written by N. Rowe, 2nd edition (London: Printed for R. Wellington and Thomas Osborne, 1702). <Link to ECCO>
The second edition includes "the addition of a new scene." The Ambitious Step-Mother. A Tragedy. As it is Acted at the New Theatre in Little-Lincolns-Inn-Fields. By Her Majesties Servants. Written by N. Rowe, 2nd edition (London: Printed for R. Wellington and Thomas Osborne, 1702). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
07/22/2013
