"Thus, like a captive in an isle confined, / Man walks at large, a prisoner of the mind."
— Dryden, John (1631-1700)
Author
Work Title
Date
1670
Metaphor
"Thus, like a captive in an isle confined, / Man walks at large, a prisoner of the mind."
Metaphor in Context
ALMANZOR
O Heaven, how dark a riddle's thy decree,
Which bounds are wills, yet seems to leave them free!
Since thy fore-knowledge cannot be in vain,
Our choice must be what thou didst first ordain.
Thus, like a captive in an isle confined,
Man walks at large, a prisoner of the mind:
Wills all his crimes, while Heaven the indictment draws,
And pleading guilty, justifies the laws.
O Heaven, how dark a riddle's thy decree,
Which bounds are wills, yet seems to leave them free!
Since thy fore-knowledge cannot be in vain,
Our choice must be what thou didst first ordain.
Thus, like a captive in an isle confined,
Man walks at large, a prisoner of the mind:
Wills all his crimes, while Heaven the indictment draws,
And pleading guilty, justifies the laws.
Categories
Provenance
Reading Louis Bredvold's The Intellectual Milieu of John Dryden (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1962), p. 63.
Date of Entry
04/06/2005
