...some curious cobweb in its stead! • As, forced from wind-guns, lead itself can fly, And ponderous slugs cut swiftly through the sky ; As clocks to weight...motion owe, The wheels above urged by the load below : Me emptiness, and dulness could inspire, And were my elasticity and fire. Some demon stole my pen...

...writing, with one hand busy with his work, 1 He may have been thinking of the couplet in the Dunciad — " As clocks to weight their nimble motion owe, The wheels above urged by the load below." and his other caressing his black poodle's head. There was something typical in the attitude and the...

...Or quite unravel all the reas'ning thread, And hang some curious cobweb in its stead! 180 As, forced from wind-guns, lead itself can fly, And pond'rous...motion owe, The wheels above urged by the load below; Me emptiness and dulness could inspire, 185 And were my elasticity and fire. Some demon stole my pen...

...in images of automata, machinelike men who spit out words as if they were bits of metal: "As forc'd from wind-guns, lead itself can fly, / And pond'rous slugs cut swiftly through the sky" (1:181-82). This description of Gibber a? word machine is one endorsed by the poet himself as he describes...

...quite unravel all the reasoning thread, And hang some curious cobweb in its stead! 180 And ponderous slugs cut swiftly through the sky; As clocks to weight...motion owe, The wheels above urged by the load below: Me emptiness, and dulness could inspire, And were my elasticity, and fire. Some daemon stole my pen...