"First crept / The parsimonious emmet, provident / Of future; in small room large heart enclosed"
— Milton, John (1608-1674)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Samuel Simmons
Date
1667; 2nd ed. in 1674
Metaphor
"First crept / The parsimonious emmet, provident / Of future; in small room large heart enclosed"
Metaphor in Context
At once came forth whatever creeps the ground,
Insect or worm: those waved their limber fans
For wings, and smallest lineaments exact
In all the liveries decked of summer's pride
With spots of gold and purple, azure and green:
These, as a line, their long dimension drew,
Streaking the ground with sinuous trace; not all
Minims of nature; some of serpent-kind,
Wonderous in length and corpulence, involved
Their snaky folds, and added wings. First crept
The parsimonious emmet, provident
Of future; in small room large heart enclosed;
Pattern of just equality perhaps
Hereafter, joined in her popular tribes
Of commonalty: Swarming next appeared
The female bee, that feeds her husband drone
Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells
With honey stored: The rest are numberless,
And thou their natures knowest, and gavest them names,
Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown
The serpent, subtlest beast of all the field,
Of huge extent sometimes, with brazen eyes
And hairy mane terrifick, though to thee
Not noxious, but obedient at thy call.
(Bk. VII, ll. 475-98)
Insect or worm: those waved their limber fans
For wings, and smallest lineaments exact
In all the liveries decked of summer's pride
With spots of gold and purple, azure and green:
These, as a line, their long dimension drew,
Streaking the ground with sinuous trace; not all
Minims of nature; some of serpent-kind,
Wonderous in length and corpulence, involved
Their snaky folds, and added wings. First crept
The parsimonious emmet, provident
Of future; in small room large heart enclosed;
Pattern of just equality perhaps
Hereafter, joined in her popular tribes
Of commonalty: Swarming next appeared
The female bee, that feeds her husband drone
Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells
With honey stored: The rest are numberless,
And thou their natures knowest, and gavest them names,
Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown
The serpent, subtlest beast of all the field,
Of huge extent sometimes, with brazen eyes
And hairy mane terrifick, though to thee
Not noxious, but obedient at thy call.
(Bk. VII, ll. 475-98)
Categories
Provenance
HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Originally working with online edition based on H. J. Todd's 1809 edition in twelve books: published by the Academic Text Service of Stanford University, 1996.
See Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books by John Milton. Licensed and entred according to order. (London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker under Creed Church neer Aldgate; and by Robert Boulter at the Turks Head in Bishopsgate-street; and Matthias Walker, under St. Dunstons Church in Fleet-street, 1667). <Link to ESTC>
See also Paradise Lost. A Poem in Twelve Books. The Author John Milton. The Second Edition Revised and Augmented by the same Author. (London: Printed by S. Simmons next door to the Golden Lion in Aldersgate-street, 1674). <Link to ESTC> <Link to LION>
Reading Alastair Fowler's Longman edition: John Milton, Paradise Lost (London and New York, 1971).
See Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books by John Milton. Licensed and entred according to order. (London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker under Creed Church neer Aldgate; and by Robert Boulter at the Turks Head in Bishopsgate-street; and Matthias Walker, under St. Dunstons Church in Fleet-street, 1667). <Link to ESTC>
See also Paradise Lost. A Poem in Twelve Books. The Author John Milton. The Second Edition Revised and Augmented by the same Author. (London: Printed by S. Simmons next door to the Golden Lion in Aldersgate-street, 1674). <Link to ESTC> <Link to LION>
Reading Alastair Fowler's Longman edition: John Milton, Paradise Lost (London and New York, 1971).
Date of Entry
08/20/2003
