text,updated_at,metaphor,created_at,context,theme,reviewed_on,dictionary,comments,provenance,id,work_id
"""To wake the soul by tender strokes of art,
To raise the genius, and to mend the heart,""--
Hold, hold! that's not my cue, we 've no intention
By ""tender strokes"" to sharpen girls' invention:
The soul will waken time enough, ne'er fear;
No lines shall rouse the slumbering passions here.
O! ever sacred be the deep repose
Which Youth, on Innocence' pure bosom, knows;
Before a wish, a throb, a care, have taught
The pangs of feeling or the lines of thought.
O happy period! soon to pass away,
Soon will the swelling gales assert their sway,
And drive the vessel from the sheltered port,--
O guide it Heaven!--of winds and waves the sport.
Nor yet ""to raise the genius"" is our aim,
With Shakespear's high-wrought scenes and words of flame.
A little story, drawn from fairy lore,
A nursery tale, this evening we explore:
""To mend the heart,"" indeed, we mean to try,
And show what poison lurks in flattery.
'Tis true our hero was a prince--what then!
Believe me, Flattery stoops to common men.
A little dose, made up with skill and care,
A grain or two of incense, all can bear:
'Tis life's first rule,--by complaisance we live;
All flatter all, and to receive we give.
Myself, for instance, am sent here tonight
With soothing speech your favour to invite;
And when our piece is done, perhaps e'en you,
My gentle auditors, may flatter too,
And make us boast our talents and our skill,
When all the merit is in your good will.
But there's a theme which asks a verse this day,
Where Flattery has no power her tints to lay;
This hallowed day, in Hymen's golden bands
Which joined consenting hearts and willing hands.
How many years ago should any ask,
Look round,--to count them is an easy task;
Each tiptoe girl, and each aspiring boy,
Date, as they pass, the years of love and joy.
O happy state! where blessings number years,
And smiles are only quenched in more delicious tears.
Here, should my willing lips the theme pursue,
And draw the lovely scene in colours due,
Paint the well-ordered home, the sacred seat
Where social joys and active virtues meet;
These wield in love, and those in love obey
The peaceful sceptre of domestic sway;
Where sparkling Fancy weaves her airy dream,
And Science sheds around her steady beam,--
Each answering heart the faithful sketch would own,
And glow with feelings raised by truth alone.",2011-05-27 14:27:39 UTC,"""This hallowed day, in Hymen's golden bands / Which joined consenting hearts and willing hands.""",2005-05-27 00:00:00 UTC,I've included the entire Prologue,"",2011-06-26,Fetters,"•C-H categorizes in Poetry. REVISIT issues of genre.
•Bands belong under Fetters?",Searching HDIS (Poetry),16558,6255
"OLD REVEL
Save him! secure his felicity! Lady Stanmore will never know the value of domestic happiness till she has lost it: she will then find that female domination is wretched slavery; and that the silken tie--the silver links that chain the heart of woman to a worthy husband, is her noblest ornament--her crown of triumph.
(IV.i)",2011-07-29 16:29:28 UTC,"""Lady Stanmore will never know the value of domestic happiness till she has lost it: she will then find that female domination is wretched slavery; and that the silken tie--the silver links that chain the heart of woman to a worthy husband, is her noblest ornament--her crown of triumph.""",2011-07-29 16:29:28 UTC,"Act IV, scene i","",,Fetters,"","Searching ""heart"" and ""chain"" in HDIS (Drama)",19055,7049
"ZEMAUN
Your power I dare
In despite of these chains,
Unconquered still my soul remains.
(III.iii)",2011-07-30 20:50:18 UTC,"""Your power I dare / In despite of these chains, / Unconquered still my soul remains.""",2011-07-30 20:50:18 UTC,"Act III, scene iii","",,Fetters,"","Searching ""soul"" and ""chain"" in HDIS (Drama)",19073,5967
"GAMBIA
England! shall I behold thee? Talk of fabled land, or magic power! But what land, that poet ever sung, or enchanter swayed, can equal that, which, when the slave's foot touches, he becomes free--his prisoned soul starts forth, his swelling nerves burst the chain that enthrall'd him, and, in his own strength he stands, as the rock he treads on, majestic and secure.
(III.v)",2011-07-30 20:58:44 UTC,"""But what land, that poet ever sung, or enchanter swayed, can equal that, which, when the slave's foot touches, he becomes free--his prisoned soul starts forth, his swelling nerves burst the chain that enthrall'd him, and, in his own strength he stands, as the rock he treads on, majestic and secure.""",2011-07-30 20:58:44 UTC,"Act III, scene v","",,Fetters,"","Searching ""soul"" and ""chain"" in HDIS (Drama)",19075,7056
"TORRENT
I give you joy of them; for, according to your own account, they must make you very comfortable. But you have deprived yourself of that, which your worst enemy's malice should never have taken from you.
BARFORD
What is it?
TORRENT
Universal benevolence: the chain of reason in which we all, willingly, bind ourselves. Nature gave us the links, and civiliz'd humanity has polish'd them.
BARFORD
And how often are the links of Reason and Nature broken by sophistry and art!
(I.ii)",2011-07-30 21:19:06 UTC,"""Universal benevolence: the chain of reason in which we all, willingly, bind ourselves. Nature gave us the links, and civiliz'd humanity has polish'd them.""",2011-07-30 21:18:36 UTC,"Searching ""reason"" and ""chain"" in HDIS (Drama)","",,Fetters,"","Act I, scene ii",19078,7058