"Hence Superstition, that tormenting guest, / That haunts with fancy'd fears the coward breas;"
— Gay, John (1685-1732)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Jacob Tonson and Bernard Lintot
Date
1720
Metaphor
"Hence Superstition, that tormenting guest, / That haunts with fancy'd fears the coward breas;"
Metaphor in Context
Methinks I see her frantick with despair,
Her streaming eyes, wrung hands, and flowing hair
Her Mechlen pinners rent the floor bestrow,
And her torn fan gives real signs of woe.
Hence Superstition, that tormenting guest,
That haunts with fancy'd fears the coward breast;
No dread events upon this fate attend,
Stream eyes no more, no more thy tresses rend.
Tho' certain omens oft forewarn a state,
And dying lyons show the monarch's fate;
Why should such fears bid Celia's sorrow rise?
For when a Lap-dog falls no lover dyes.
Her streaming eyes, wrung hands, and flowing hair
Her Mechlen pinners rent the floor bestrow,
And her torn fan gives real signs of woe.
Hence Superstition, that tormenting guest,
That haunts with fancy'd fears the coward breast;
No dread events upon this fate attend,
Stream eyes no more, no more thy tresses rend.
Tho' certain omens oft forewarn a state,
And dying lyons show the monarch's fate;
Why should such fears bid Celia's sorrow rise?
For when a Lap-dog falls no lover dyes.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "fancy" and "guest" in HDIS (Poetry)
Date of Entry
03/14/2006
