"My eye, which swift as thought contracts the space / That lies between, and first salutes the place / Crown'd with that sacred pile, so vast, so high, / That whether 'tis a part of Earth, or sky, / Uncertain seems, and may be thought a proud / Aspiring mountain, or descending cloud, / Pauls, the late theme of such a Muse whose flight / Has bravely reach't and soar'd above thy height."
— Denham, John, Sir (1615-1669)
Work Title
Date
1642, 1655, 1668
Metaphor
"My eye, which swift as thought contracts the space / That lies between, and first salutes the place / Crown'd with that sacred pile, so vast, so high, / That whether 'tis a part of Earth, or sky, / Uncertain seems, and may be thought a proud / Aspiring mountain, or descending cloud, / Pauls, the late theme of such a Muse whose flight / Has bravely reach't and soar'd above thy height."
Metaphor in Context
Sure there are Poets which did never dream
Upon Parnassus, nor did tast the stream
Of Helicon, we therefore may suppose
Those made not Poets, but the Poets those.
And as Courts make not Kings, but Kings the Court,
So where the Muses & their train resort,
Parnassus stands; if I can be to thee
A Poet, thou Parnassus art to me.
Nor wonder, if (advantag'd in my flight,
By taking wing from thy auspicious height)
Through untrac't ways, and aery paths I fly,
More boundless in my Fancy than my eie:
My eye, which swift as thought contracts the space
That lies between, and first salutes the place
Crown'd with that sacred pile, so vast, so high,
That whether 'tis a part of Earth, or sky,
Uncertain seems, and may be thought a proud
Aspiring mountain, or descending cloud,
Pauls, the late theme of such a Muse whose flight
Has bravely reach't and soar'd above thy height:
Now shalt thou stand though sword, or time, or fire,
Or zeal more fierce than they, thy fall conspire,
Secure, whilst thee the best of Poets sings,
Preserv'd from ruine by the best of Kings.
(ll. 1-24; cf. pp. 1-2 in 1655 ed.)
Upon Parnassus, nor did tast the stream
Of Helicon, we therefore may suppose
Those made not Poets, but the Poets those.
And as Courts make not Kings, but Kings the Court,
So where the Muses & their train resort,
Parnassus stands; if I can be to thee
A Poet, thou Parnassus art to me.
Nor wonder, if (advantag'd in my flight,
By taking wing from thy auspicious height)
Through untrac't ways, and aery paths I fly,
More boundless in my Fancy than my eie:
My eye, which swift as thought contracts the space
That lies between, and first salutes the place
Crown'd with that sacred pile, so vast, so high,
That whether 'tis a part of Earth, or sky,
Uncertain seems, and may be thought a proud
Aspiring mountain, or descending cloud,
Pauls, the late theme of such a Muse whose flight
Has bravely reach't and soar'd above thy height:
Now shalt thou stand though sword, or time, or fire,
Or zeal more fierce than they, thy fall conspire,
Secure, whilst thee the best of Poets sings,
Preserv'd from ruine by the best of Kings.
(ll. 1-24; cf. pp. 1-2 in 1655 ed.)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
At least 13 entries in ESTC (1642, 1643, 1650, 1653, 1655, 1668, 1676, 1709, 1713, 1794). Unauthorized version of the poem published in 1642, progressively revised. First authorized edition in 1655.
See Coopers Hill. A Poëme. (London: Printed for Tho. Walkley, and are to be to be sold at his shop at the signe of the Flying Horse between York-house and Britaines Burse, 1642).<Link to ESTC>
See Coopers Hill. Written in the Yeare 1640. Now Printed from a Perfect Copy; and a Corrected Impression. By John Denham Esq. (London: Printed for Humphrey Moseley, and are to be sold at his shop, at the signe of the Princes Armes in St Pauls Church-yard, 1655). <Link to ESTC>
Text from Jack Lynch's online "reading text," based on the version of the poem published in Poems and Translations (1668) <Link>.
See Coopers Hill. A Poëme. (London: Printed for Tho. Walkley, and are to be to be sold at his shop at the signe of the Flying Horse between York-house and Britaines Burse, 1642).<Link to ESTC>
See Coopers Hill. Written in the Yeare 1640. Now Printed from a Perfect Copy; and a Corrected Impression. By John Denham Esq. (London: Printed for Humphrey Moseley, and are to be sold at his shop, at the signe of the Princes Armes in St Pauls Church-yard, 1655). <Link to ESTC>
Text from Jack Lynch's online "reading text," based on the version of the poem published in Poems and Translations (1668) <Link>.
Theme
Speed of Thought
Date of Entry
07/08/2014
