One may "grateful bow / To those benignant pow'rs, who fram'd thy mind / In crimes unfruitful, never to admit / The black impression of a guilty thought."
— Glover, Richard (1712-1785)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for R. Dodsley
Date
1737
Metaphor
One may "grateful bow / To those benignant pow'rs, who fram'd thy mind / In crimes unfruitful, never to admit / The black impression of a guilty thought."
Metaphor in Context
My fate is now impending. O my heart!
What more auspicious period could I chuse
For death, than now; when beating high with joy
Thou tell'st me, I am happy? If to live,
Or die, as Virtue dictates, be to know
The purest bliss; if she her charms display
Still beauteous, still unfading, still serene
To youth, to age, to death; whatever be
Those other climes of uncorruptive joy,
Which Heav'n in dark futurity conceals,
Still here, O Virtue, thou art all our good.
Then what a black, unspeakable reverse
The wretched offspring of Injustice prove?
What in the struggle of departing day,
When life's last glimpse extinguishing presents
Th' unknown, inextricable gloom of death?
But can I paint the terrours of a breast,
Where guilt resides? Leonidas forego
The horrible conception, seek again
Thy own untroubled heart, and grateful bow
To those benignant pow'rs, who fram'd thy mind
In crimes unfruitful, never to admit
The black impression of a guilty thought.
Else could I fearless thus relinquish life?
No. Such unshaken calmness from th' unjust
Is ever absent. Oft in them the rage
Of some prevailing passion for a time
Suppresses fear. Oft hurried on they lose
The sense of danger, when dominion, pow'r,
And purple pomp their dazzled sight enchant.
Yet still the joys of life alone they seek.
But he, who calmly meets resistless fate,
When glory only, and the gen'ral good
Invite him forward, must possess a soul,
Which all content deducing from itself
Can by unerring virtue's constant light
Discern, when death is worthy of his choice.
The man thus great and happy, in the scope
Of his large mind is stretch'd beyond his date;
Ev'n on this shore of being he in thought
Supremely bless'd anticipates the good,
Which late posterity from him derives.
What more auspicious period could I chuse
For death, than now; when beating high with joy
Thou tell'st me, I am happy? If to live,
Or die, as Virtue dictates, be to know
The purest bliss; if she her charms display
Still beauteous, still unfading, still serene
To youth, to age, to death; whatever be
Those other climes of uncorruptive joy,
Which Heav'n in dark futurity conceals,
Still here, O Virtue, thou art all our good.
Then what a black, unspeakable reverse
The wretched offspring of Injustice prove?
What in the struggle of departing day,
When life's last glimpse extinguishing presents
Th' unknown, inextricable gloom of death?
But can I paint the terrours of a breast,
Where guilt resides? Leonidas forego
The horrible conception, seek again
Thy own untroubled heart, and grateful bow
To those benignant pow'rs, who fram'd thy mind
In crimes unfruitful, never to admit
The black impression of a guilty thought.
Else could I fearless thus relinquish life?
No. Such unshaken calmness from th' unjust
Is ever absent. Oft in them the rage
Of some prevailing passion for a time
Suppresses fear. Oft hurried on they lose
The sense of danger, when dominion, pow'r,
And purple pomp their dazzled sight enchant.
Yet still the joys of life alone they seek.
But he, who calmly meets resistless fate,
When glory only, and the gen'ral good
Invite him forward, must possess a soul,
Which all content deducing from itself
Can by unerring virtue's constant light
Discern, when death is worthy of his choice.
The man thus great and happy, in the scope
Of his large mind is stretch'd beyond his date;
Ev'n on this shore of being he in thought
Supremely bless'd anticipates the good,
Which late posterity from him derives.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "impression" and "thought" in HDIS (Poetry)
Date of Entry
05/20/2005
