"Faint-hearted Wights, wha dully stood afar, / Tholling your Reason great Attempts to mar; / While the brave Dauntless, of sic Fetters free, / Jumpt headlong glorious in the golden Sea."
— Ramsay, Allan (1684-1758)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
T. Jauncy
Date
June, 1720
Metaphor
"Faint-hearted Wights, wha dully stood afar, / Tholling your Reason great Attempts to mar; / While the brave Dauntless, of sic Fetters free, / Jumpt headlong glorious in the golden Sea."
Metaphor in Context
Mean time the Thinkers wha are out of Play,
For their ain Comfort kenna what to say;
That the Foundation's loose fain wa'd they shaw,
And think na but the Fabrick soon will fa'.
That's a' but Sham,--for inwardly they fry,
Vext that their Fingers were na in the Pye.
Faint-hearted Wights, wha dully stood afar,
Tholling your Reason great Attempts to mar;
While the brave Dauntless, of sic Fetters free,
Jumpt headlong glorious in the golden Sea:
Where now like Gods they rule each wealthy Jaw,
While you may thump your Pows against the Wa'.
For their ain Comfort kenna what to say;
That the Foundation's loose fain wa'd they shaw,
And think na but the Fabrick soon will fa'.
That's a' but Sham,--for inwardly they fry,
Vext that their Fingers were na in the Pye.
Faint-hearted Wights, wha dully stood afar,
Tholling your Reason great Attempts to mar;
While the brave Dauntless, of sic Fetters free,
Jumpt headlong glorious in the golden Sea:
Where now like Gods they rule each wealthy Jaw,
While you may thump your Pows against the Wa'.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "rule" and "reason" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
17 entries in ECCO and 4 in ESTC (1720, 1721, 1731, 1733, 1751, 1760, 1761, 1770, 1776, 1780, 1794, 1797, 1800).
See Wealth, or the Woody: a Poem on the South-Sea. By Mr. Allan Ramsay. To Which Is Prefix’d, a Familiar Epistle to Anthony Hammond Esq; by Mr. Sewell. 2nd ed. corr. (London: Printed for T. Jauncy at the Angel without Temple-Bar, 1720). <1720 2nd edition in Google Books>
Found also in ECCO in Poems by Allan Ramsay (1721, 1731, 1733, 1751, 1760, 1761, 1770, 1797, 1800) and Poems on Several Occasions (1776, 1780, 1794).
Text from Ramsay, Allan. The Works of Allan Ramsay Eds. Burns Martin etc. 6 vols. (Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1944-1973).
See Wealth, or the Woody: a Poem on the South-Sea. By Mr. Allan Ramsay. To Which Is Prefix’d, a Familiar Epistle to Anthony Hammond Esq; by Mr. Sewell. 2nd ed. corr. (London: Printed for T. Jauncy at the Angel without Temple-Bar, 1720). <1720 2nd edition in Google Books>
Found also in ECCO in Poems by Allan Ramsay (1721, 1731, 1733, 1751, 1760, 1761, 1770, 1797, 1800) and Poems on Several Occasions (1776, 1780, 1794).
Text from Ramsay, Allan. The Works of Allan Ramsay Eds. Burns Martin etc. 6 vols. (Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1944-1973).
Date of Entry
06/22/2004
Date of Review
12/31/2010
