"Such Beings Philosophick heads relate / Of heavenly stamp"
— Heyrick, Thomas (bap. 1649. d. 1694)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for the Author
Date
1687
Metaphor
"Such Beings Philosophick heads relate / Of heavenly stamp"
Metaphor in Context
Low her Design's, and yet from Heaven her Birth:
High Claim, and yet too near ally'd to Earth,
Once she in Heavens first Rank of Favour stood,
Pure as the Light, and as a Cherub good.
Heaven o're her head Indulgent blessings strow'd,
A Guard of Angels for her Aid allow'd,
But cursed Satan mixed with the Crowd.
They wing'd her Mind with high Æthereal Fires,
He sunk it with Terrestrial desires:
Too fatal are the Charms the World inspires.
Happy, thrice happy, had she never fell,
Or had been, what she vaunts, Infallible.
Ambition (if that name we may it call
Which doth from high to low Employments fall)
First sunk her down: desire of humane Power
Blemish'd the right she had Divine before,
And every weight of that still sunk her lower:
Loaded with Vanity, the Scale that rose
The other from its Empire did depose.
Adam more nobly fell, his lofty Mind
At great Acts and Divinity design'd,
She from sublime to sordid deeds declin'd.
Such Beings Philosophick heads relate
Of heavenly stamp; when weary of their state,
Tir'd with reiterated Joys they grow,
And long to prove untasted Bliss below.
The nearer their low Course to Earth doth lead,
Farther they from their Pristine glory do recede,
Baser and baser grow th' Ignoble Minds,
Till they degenerate into other kinds.
High Claim, and yet too near ally'd to Earth,
Once she in Heavens first Rank of Favour stood,
Pure as the Light, and as a Cherub good.
Heaven o're her head Indulgent blessings strow'd,
A Guard of Angels for her Aid allow'd,
But cursed Satan mixed with the Crowd.
They wing'd her Mind with high Æthereal Fires,
He sunk it with Terrestrial desires:
Too fatal are the Charms the World inspires.
Happy, thrice happy, had she never fell,
Or had been, what she vaunts, Infallible.
Ambition (if that name we may it call
Which doth from high to low Employments fall)
First sunk her down: desire of humane Power
Blemish'd the right she had Divine before,
And every weight of that still sunk her lower:
Loaded with Vanity, the Scale that rose
The other from its Empire did depose.
Adam more nobly fell, his lofty Mind
At great Acts and Divinity design'd,
She from sublime to sordid deeds declin'd.
Such Beings Philosophick heads relate
Of heavenly stamp; when weary of their state,
Tir'd with reiterated Joys they grow,
And long to prove untasted Bliss below.
The nearer their low Course to Earth doth lead,
Farther they from their Pristine glory do recede,
Baser and baser grow th' Ignoble Minds,
Till they degenerate into other kinds.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "stamp" and "head" in HDIS (Poetry)
Date of Entry
04/11/2005
