"The' etherial soul that Heaven itself inspires / With all its virtues, and with all its fires, / Led by these sirens to some wild extreme, / Sets in a vapour when it ought to beam; / Like a Dutch sun that in the' autumnal sky / Looks through a fog, and rises but to die."
— Cawthorn, James (1719-1761)
Author
Date
1755, 1771
Metaphor
"The' etherial soul that Heaven itself inspires / With all its virtues, and with all its fires, / Led by these sirens to some wild extreme, / Sets in a vapour when it ought to beam; / Like a Dutch sun that in the' autumnal sky / Looks through a fog, and rises but to die."
Metaphor in Context
And yet these passions which, on nature's plan,
Call out the hero while they form the man,
Warp'd from the sacred line that nature gave,
As meanly ruin as they nobly save.
The' etherial soul that Heaven itself inspires
With all its virtues, and with all its fires,
Led by these sirens to some wild extreme,
Sets in a vapour when it ought to beam;
Like a Dutch sun that in the' autumnal sky
Looks through a fog, and rises but to die.
But he whose active, unencumber'd mind
Leaves this low earth and all its mists behind,
Fond in a pure unclouded sky to glow,
Like the bright orb that rises on the Po,
O'er half the globe with steady splendour shines,
And ripens virtues as it ripens mines.
(p. 154)
Call out the hero while they form the man,
Warp'd from the sacred line that nature gave,
As meanly ruin as they nobly save.
The' etherial soul that Heaven itself inspires
With all its virtues, and with all its fires,
Led by these sirens to some wild extreme,
Sets in a vapour when it ought to beam;
Like a Dutch sun that in the' autumnal sky
Looks through a fog, and rises but to die.
But he whose active, unencumber'd mind
Leaves this low earth and all its mists behind,
Fond in a pure unclouded sky to glow,
Like the bright orb that rises on the Po,
O'er half the globe with steady splendour shines,
And ripens virtues as it ripens mines.
(p. 154)
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
