"But, like a mole in earth, busy and blind, / [the soul] Works all her folly up, and casts it outward / To the world's open view"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)


Place of Publication
London
Date
1678
Metaphor
"But, like a mole in earth, busy and blind, / [the soul] Works all her folly up, and casts it outward / To the world's open view"
Metaphor in Context
DOLA.
Men are but children of a larger growth;
Our appetites as apt to change as theirs,
And full as craving too, and full as vain;
And yet the soul, shut up in her dark room,
Viewing so clear abroad, at home sees nothing:
But, like a mole in earth, busy and blind,
Works all her folly up, and casts it outward
To the world's open view
: Thus I discovered,
And blamed the love of ruined Antony:
Yet wish that I were he, to be so ruined.
(ll. 43-52)
Categories
Provenance
Searching the internet for cross reference in Pamela.
Citation
See All for Love: or, the World Well Lost. A Tragedy, As It Is Acted at the Theatre-Royal; and Written in Imitation of Shakespeare’s Stile. by John Dryden, Servant to His Majesty. ([London]: In the Savoy: printed by Tho. Newcomb, for Henry Herringman, at the Blew Anchor in the lower walk of the New-Exchange, 1678). <Link to ESTC>

See also All for Love, or, the World Well Lost a Tragedy, As It Is Acted at the Theatre-Royal, and Written in Imitation of Shakespeare's Stile ([London] In the Savoy: Printed for H. Herringman, and sold by R. Bently, J. Tonson, F. Saunders, and T. Bennet, 1692). <Link to EEBO-TCP>

Dryden, John. All for Love. Regents Restoration Drama Series, ed. David M. Vieth (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1972).
Date of Entry
09/03/2005

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.