The poetical works of Mark Akenside.

  • Mark Akenside
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The poetical works of Mark Akenside. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    But first with thy resistless light Disperse those phantoms from my sight, Those mimic shades of thee : The scholiast’s learning, sophist’s cant, The visionary bigot’s rant, The monk’s philosophy. Oh ! let thy powerful charms impart The patient head, the candid heart, Devoted to thy sway ; Which no weak passions e’er mislead, Which still with dauntless steps proceed Where reason points the way. Give me to learn each secret cause; Let number’s, figure’s, motion’s laws Revealed before me stand; These to great Nature’s scenes apply, And round the globe, and through the sky, Disclose her working hand. Next, to thy nobler search resigned, The busy, restless, human mind Through every maze pursue; Detect perception where it lies, Catch the ideas as they rise, And all their changes view. Say from what simple springs began The vast ambitious thoughts of man, Which range beyond control, Which seek eternity to trace, Dive through the infinity of space, And strain to grasp the whole. Her secret stores let memory tell, Bid Fancy quit her fairy cell, In all her colours drest;
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