"The tender age was pliant to command; / Like wax it yielded to the forming hand: / True to the artificer, the laboured mind / With ease was pious, generous, just, and kind."
— Dryden, John (1631-1700)
Author
Date
1692
Metaphor
"The tender age was pliant to command; / Like wax it yielded to the forming hand: / True to the artificer, the laboured mind / With ease was pious, generous, just, and kind."
Metaphor in Context
Her pious love excelled to all she bore;
New objects only multiplied it more.
And as the chosen found the pearly grain
As much as every vessel could contain;
As in the blissful vision each shall share
As much of glory as his soul can bear;
So did she love, and so dispense her care.
Her eldest thus, by consequence, was best,
As longer cultivated than the rest.
The babe had all that infant care beguiles,
And early knew his mother in her smiles:
But when dilated organs let in day
To the young soul, and gave it room to play,
At his first aptness, the maternal love
Those rudiments of reason did improve:
The tender age was pliant to command;
Like wax it yielded to the forming hand:
True to the artificer, the laboured mind
With ease was pious, generous, just, and kind;
Soft for impression, from the first prepared,
Till virtue with long exercise grew hard:
With every act confirmed, and made at last
So durable as not to be effaced,
It turned to habit; and, from vices free,
Goodness resolved into necessity.
(pp. 331-2, ll. 205-229)
New objects only multiplied it more.
And as the chosen found the pearly grain
As much as every vessel could contain;
As in the blissful vision each shall share
As much of glory as his soul can bear;
So did she love, and so dispense her care.
Her eldest thus, by consequence, was best,
As longer cultivated than the rest.
The babe had all that infant care beguiles,
And early knew his mother in her smiles:
But when dilated organs let in day
To the young soul, and gave it room to play,
At his first aptness, the maternal love
Those rudiments of reason did improve:
The tender age was pliant to command;
Like wax it yielded to the forming hand:
True to the artificer, the laboured mind
With ease was pious, generous, just, and kind;
Soft for impression, from the first prepared,
Till virtue with long exercise grew hard:
With every act confirmed, and made at last
So durable as not to be effaced,
It turned to habit; and, from vices free,
Goodness resolved into necessity.
(pp. 331-2, ll. 205-229)
Categories
Provenance
Reading Maclean's John Locke and English Literature (1962), p. 33. Found again searching in HDIS (Poetry).
Citation
Dryden, John. John Dryden. Ed. Keith Walker. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1987. p. 323-335.
Date of Entry
08/29/2005
Date of Review
09/24/2008
