"Nothing can describe the soul: / 'Tis a region half unknown, / That has treasures of its own. / More remote from public view / Than the bowels of Peru; / Broader 'tis, and brighter far, / Than the golden Indies are; / Ships that trace the wat'ry stage / Cannot coast it in an age; / Harts, or horses, strong and fleet, / Had they wings to help their feet, / Could not run it half-way o'er / In ten thousand days or more."
— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)
Author
Work Title
Date
1709, 1810
Metaphor
"Nothing can describe the soul: / 'Tis a region half unknown, / That has treasures of its own. / More remote from public view / Than the bowels of Peru; / Broader 'tis, and brighter far, / Than the golden Indies are; / Ships that trace the wat'ry stage / Cannot coast it in an age; / Harts, or horses, strong and fleet, / Had they wings to help their feet, / Could not run it half-way o'er / In ten thousand days or more."
Metaphor in Context
There are endless beauties more
Earth hath no resemblance for;
Nothing like them round the pole,
Nothing can describe the soul:
'Tis a region half unknown,
That has treasures of its own.
More remote from public view
Than the bowels of Peru;
Broader 'tis, and brighter far,
Than the golden Indies are;
Ships that trace the wat'ry stage
Cannot coast it in an age;
Harts, or horses, strong and fleet,
Had they wings to help their feet,
Could not run it half-way o'er
In ten thousand days or more.
(p. 469, ll. 43-58)
Earth hath no resemblance for;
Nothing like them round the pole,
Nothing can describe the soul:
'Tis a region half unknown,
That has treasures of its own.
More remote from public view
Than the bowels of Peru;
Broader 'tis, and brighter far,
Than the golden Indies are;
Ships that trace the wat'ry stage
Cannot coast it in an age;
Harts, or horses, strong and fleet,
Had they wings to help their feet,
Could not run it half-way o'er
In ten thousand days or more.
(p. 469, ll. 43-58)
Categories
Provenance
Reading work in progress by Sarah Kareem.
Citation
35 entries in ESTC (1709, 1715, 1731, 1737, 1743, 1748, 1750, 1751, 1753, 1758, 1762, 1764, 1765, 1770, 1772, 1778, 1779, 1780, 1781, 1785, 1786, 1788, 1790, 1792, 1793, 1795, 1796, 1798, 1799). Compare two-book and three-book versions.
See Isaac Watts, Horæ Lyricæ. Poems Chiefly of the Lyric Kind. In Three Books, 2nd ed. (London: Printed by J. Humfreys, for N. Cliff, 1709). <Link to ECCO>
Searching The Works of the Reverend and Learned Isaac Watts, D. D., 6 vols. (London: Printed by and for John Barfield, 1810).
See Isaac Watts, Horæ Lyricæ. Poems Chiefly of the Lyric Kind. In Three Books, 2nd ed. (London: Printed by J. Humfreys, for N. Cliff, 1709). <Link to ECCO>
Searching The Works of the Reverend and Learned Isaac Watts, D. D., 6 vols. (London: Printed by and for John Barfield, 1810).
Date of Entry
04/12/2014
