"I writing of the Way / And Race of Saints, in this our Gospel-Day, / Fell suddenly into an Allegory / About their Journey, and the way to Glory, / In more than twenty things, which I set down; / This done, I twenty more had in my Crown, / And they again began to multiply, / Like sparks that from the coals of fire do fly."
— Bunyan, John (bap. 1628, d. 1688)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for Nath. Ponder
Date
1678
Metaphor
"I writing of the Way / And Race of Saints, in this our Gospel-Day, / Fell suddenly into an Allegory / About their Journey, and the way to Glory, / In more than twenty things, which I set down; / This done, I twenty more had in my Crown, / And they again began to multiply, / Like sparks that from the coals of fire do fly."
Metaphor in Context
And thus it was: I writing of the Way
And Race of Saints, in this our Gospel-Day,
Fell suddenly into an Allegory
About their Journey, and the way to Glory,
In more than twenty things, which I set down;
This done, I twenty more had in my Crown,
And they again began to multiply,
Like sparks that from the coals of fire do fly.
Nay then, thought I, if that you breed so fast,
I'll put you by your selves, lest you at last
Should prove ad infinitum, and eat out
The Book that I already am about.
And Race of Saints, in this our Gospel-Day,
Fell suddenly into an Allegory
About their Journey, and the way to Glory,
In more than twenty things, which I set down;
This done, I twenty more had in my Crown,
And they again began to multiply,
Like sparks that from the coals of fire do fly.
Nay then, thought I, if that you breed so fast,
I'll put you by your selves, lest you at last
Should prove ad infinitum, and eat out
The Book that I already am about.
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
See The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come Delivered Under the Similitude of a Dream, Wherein Is Discovered the Manner of His Setting out, His Dangerous Journey, and Safe Arrival at the Desired Countrey. (London: Printed for Nath. Ponder, 1678). <Link to EEBO-TCP>
Reading The Pilgrims's Progress, ed. Cynthia Wall (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2009).
Reading The Pilgrims's Progress, ed. Cynthia Wall (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2009).
Date of Entry
09/02/2014
