"In every human breast there lives enshrined / Some atom pregnant with the' etherial mind; / Some plastic power, some intellectual ray, / Some genial sunbeam from the source of day; / Something that, warm and restless to aspire, / Works the young heart, and sets the soul on fire, / And bids us all our inborn powers employ / To catch the phantom of ideal joy."
— Cawthorn, James (1719-1761)
Author
Date
1755, 1771
Metaphor
"In every human breast there lives enshrined / Some atom pregnant with the' etherial mind; / Some plastic power, some intellectual ray, / Some genial sunbeam from the source of day; / Something that, warm and restless to aspire, / Works the young heart, and sets the soul on fire, / And bids us all our inborn powers employ / To catch the phantom of ideal joy."
Metaphor in Context
In every human breast there lives enshrined
Some atom pregnant with the' etherial mind;
Some plastic power, some intellectual ray,
Some genial sunbeam from the source of day;
Something that, warm and restless to aspire,
Works the young heart, and sets the soul on fire,
And bids us all our inborn powers employ
To catch the phantom of ideal joy.
Were it not so, the soul, all dead and lost,
Like the tall cliff beneath the' impassive frost,
Form'd for no end, and impotent to please,
Would lie inactive on the couch of ease:
And, heedless of proud fame's immortal lay,
Sleep all her dull divinity away.
(p. 153)
Some atom pregnant with the' etherial mind;
Some plastic power, some intellectual ray,
Some genial sunbeam from the source of day;
Something that, warm and restless to aspire,
Works the young heart, and sets the soul on fire,
And bids us all our inborn powers employ
To catch the phantom of ideal joy.
Were it not so, the soul, all dead and lost,
Like the tall cliff beneath the' impassive frost,
Form'd for no end, and impotent to please,
Would lie inactive on the couch of ease:
And, heedless of proud fame's immortal lay,
Sleep all her dull divinity away.
(p. 153)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
"Spoken at the Anniversary Visitation of the Tunbridge School, 1755." At least 5 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1771, 1790, 1795, 1800).
See Poems, by the Rev. Mr. Cawthorn. Late Master of Tunbridge School. (London: Printed by W. Woodfall: and sold by S. Bladon, 1771). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO>
Text from The Poems of Hill, Cawthorn, and Bruce (Chiswick: C. Whittinham, 1822). <Link to Google Books>
See Poems, by the Rev. Mr. Cawthorn. Late Master of Tunbridge School. (London: Printed by W. Woodfall: and sold by S. Bladon, 1771). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO>
Text from The Poems of Hill, Cawthorn, and Bruce (Chiswick: C. Whittinham, 1822). <Link to Google Books>
Date of Entry
07/25/2014
