"In vain the Harlot Pleasure spreads her Charms / To lull his Thoughts in Luxuries fair Lap / To sensual Ease, (the Bane of little Kings, / Monarchs whose waxen Images of Souls / Are moulded into Softness) still his Mind / Wears its own Shape."
— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by S. and D. Bridge, for John Lawrence
Date
1706, 1709
Metaphor
"In vain the Harlot Pleasure spreads her Charms / To lull his Thoughts in Luxuries fair Lap / To sensual Ease, (the Bane of little Kings, / Monarchs whose waxen Images of Souls / Are moulded into Softness) still his Mind / Wears its own Shape."
Metaphor in Context
In vain the Harlot Pleasure spreads her Charms
To lull his Thoughts in Luxuries fair Lap
To sensual Ease, (the Bane of little Kings,
Monarchs whose waxen Images of Souls
Are moulded into Softness) still his Mind
Wears its own Shape, nor can the Heavenly Form
Stoop to be model'd by the wild Decrees
Of the mad Vulgar, that unthinking Herd.
(p. 148; compare 189-90 in 1709 ed.)
To lull his Thoughts in Luxuries fair Lap
To sensual Ease, (the Bane of little Kings,
Monarchs whose waxen Images of Souls
Are moulded into Softness) still his Mind
Wears its own Shape, nor can the Heavenly Form
Stoop to be model'd by the wild Decrees
Of the mad Vulgar, that unthinking Herd.
(p. 148; compare 189-90 in 1709 ed.)
Provenance
Searching "wax" and "soul" in HDIS (Poetry); text from ECCO-TCP
Citation
36 entries in ESTC (1706, 1709, 1715, 1731, 1737, 1743, 1748, 1750, 1751, 1753, 1758, 1762, 1764, 1765, 1770, 1772, 1778, 1779, 1780, 1781, 1785, 1786, 1788, 1790, 1792, 1793, 1795, 1796, 1798, 1799). Compare two-book and three-book versions.
See Isaac Watts, Horæ Lyricæ. Poems, Chiefly of the Lyric Kind. in Two Books. (London: Printed by S. and D. Bridge, for John Lawrence, 1706). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO><Link to ECCO-TCP>
Titled "True Monarchy" in Isaac Watts, Horæ Lyricæ. Poems Chiefly of the Lyric Kind. In Three Books, 2nd ed. (London: Printed by J. Humfreys, for N. Cliff, 1709). <Link to ECCO>
Originally found searching in The Works of the Reverend and Learned Isaac Watts, D. D., 6 vols. (London: Printed by and for John Barfield, 1810).
See Isaac Watts, Horæ Lyricæ. Poems, Chiefly of the Lyric Kind. in Two Books. (London: Printed by S. and D. Bridge, for John Lawrence, 1706). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO><Link to ECCO-TCP>
Titled "True Monarchy" in Isaac Watts, Horæ Lyricæ. Poems Chiefly of the Lyric Kind. In Three Books, 2nd ed. (London: Printed by J. Humfreys, for N. Cliff, 1709). <Link to ECCO>
Originally found searching in The Works of the Reverend and Learned Isaac Watts, D. D., 6 vols. (London: Printed by and for John Barfield, 1810).
Date of Entry
03/27/2005
Date of Review
02/07/2014
