The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside

Name: The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside
Author: Akenside, Mark

Akenside, Mark

English poetry -- 18th century

But from what name, what favourable sign,
  What heavenly auspice, rather shall I date
  My perilous excursion, than from Truth,
  That nearest inmate of the human soul;
  Estranged from whom, the countenance divine
  Of man, disfigured and dishonour'd, sinks
  Among inferior things? For to the brutes
  Perception and the transient boons of sense
  Hath Fate imparted; but to man alone                          50
  Of sublunary beings was it given.
  Each fleeting impulse on the sensual powers
  At leisure to review; with equal eye
  To scan the passion of the stricken nerve,
  Or the vague object striking; to conduct
  From sense, the portal turbulent and loud,
  Into the mind's wide palace one by one
  The frequent, pressing, fluctuating forms,
  And question and compare them. Thus he learns
  Their birth and fortunes; how allied they haunt               60
  The avenues of sense; what laws direct
  Their union; and what various discords rise,
  Or fixed, or casual; which when his clear thought
  Retains and when his faithful words express,
  That living image of the external scene,
  As in a polish'd mirror held to view,
  Is Truth; where'er it varies from the shape
  And hue of its exemplar, in that part
  Dim Error lurks. Moreover, from without
  When oft the same society of forms                            70
  In the same order have approach'd his mind,
  He deigns no more their steps with curious heed
  To trace; no more their features or their garb
  He now examines; but of them and their
  Condition, as with some diviner's tongue,
  Affirms what Heaven in every distant place,
  Through every future season, will decree.
  This too is Truth; where'er his prudent lips
  Wait till experience diligent and slow
  Has authorised their sentence, this is Truth;                 80
  A second, higher kind: the parent this
  Of Science; or the lofty power herself,
  Science herself, on whom the wants and cares
  Of social life depend; the substitute
  Of God's own wisdom in this toilsome world;
  The providence of man. Yet oft in vain,
  To earn her aid, with fix'd and anxious eye
  He looks on Nature's and on Fortune's course:
  Too much in vain. His duller visual ray
  The stillness and the persevering acts                        90
  Of Nature oft elude; and Fortune oft
  With step fantastic from her wonted walk
  Turns into mazes dim; his sight is foil'd;
  And the crude sentence of his faltering tongue
  Is but opinion's verdict, half believed,
  And prone to change. Here thou, who feel'st thine ear
  Congenial to my lyre's profounder tone,
  Pause, and be watchful. Hitherto the stores,
  Which feed thy mind and exercise her powers,
  Partake the relish of their native soil,                      100
  Their parent earth. But know, a nobler dower
  Her Sire at birth decreed her; purer gifts
  From his own treasure; forms which never deign'd
  In eyes or ears to dwell, within the sense
  Of earthly organs; but sublime were placed

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

The Poetical Works of Mark AkensideAkenside, Mark

General

The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside

Akenside, Mark

English poetry -- 18th century

But from what name, what favourable sign,
  What heavenly auspice, rather shall I date
  My perilous excursion, than from Truth,
  That nearest inmate of the human soul;
  Estranged from whom, the countenance divine
  Of man, disfigured and dishonour'd, sinks
  Among inferior things? For to the brutes
  Perception and the transient boons of sense
  Hath Fate imparted; but to man alone                          50
  Of sublunary beings was it given.
  Each fleeting impulse on the sensual powers
  At leisure to review; with equal eye
  To scan the passion of the stricken nerve,
  Or the vague object striking; to conduct
  From sense, the portal turbulent and loud,
  Into the mind's wide palace one by one
  The frequent, pressing, fluctuating forms,
  And question and compare them. Thus he learns
  Their birth and fortunes; how allied they haunt               60
  The avenues of sense; what laws direct
  Their union; and what various discords rise,
  Or fixed, or casual; which when his clear thought
  Retains and when his faithful words express,
  That living image of the external scene,
  As in a polish'd mirror held to view,
  Is Truth; where'er it varies from the shape
  And hue of its exemplar, in that part
  Dim Error lurks. Moreover, from without
  When oft the same society of forms                            70
  In the same order have approach'd his mind,
  He deigns no more their steps with curious heed
  To trace; no more their features or their garb
  He now examines; but of them and their
  Condition, as with some diviner's tongue,
  Affirms what Heaven in every distant place,
  Through every future season, will decree.
  This too is Truth; where'er his prudent lips
  Wait till experience diligent and slow
  Has authorised their sentence, this is Truth;                 80
  A second, higher kind: the parent this
  Of Science; or the lofty power herself,
  Science herself, on whom the wants and cares
  Of social life depend; the substitute
  Of God's own wisdom in this toilsome world;
  The providence of man. Yet oft in vain,
  To earn her aid, with fix'd and anxious eye
  He looks on Nature's and on Fortune's course:
  Too much in vain. His duller visual ray
  The stillness and the persevering acts                        90
  Of Nature oft elude; and Fortune oft
  With step fantastic from her wonted walk
  Turns into mazes dim; his sight is foil'd;
  And the crude sentence of his faltering tongue
  Is but opinion's verdict, half believed,
  And prone to change. Here thou, who feel'st thine ear
  Congenial to my lyre's profounder tone,
  Pause, and be watchful. Hitherto the stores,
  Which feed thy mind and exercise her powers,
  Partake the relish of their native soil,                      100
  Their parent earth. But know, a nobler dower
  Her Sire at birth decreed her; purer gifts
  From his own treasure; forms which never deign'd
  In eyes or ears to dwell, within the sense
  Of earthly organs; but sublime were placed

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside

The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside

No reviews yet