"When the luxuriant Ardour of his Youth / Succeeding Years had tam'd to better Growth, / And seem'd to break the Body's Crust away, / To give th'expanded Mind more Room to play; / Which, in its Evening, open'd on the Sight / Surprizing Beams of full Meridian Light, / As thrifty of its Splendor it had been, / And all its Lustre had reserv'd 'till then."
— Hughes, Jabez (1685-1731)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by John Watts
Date
1737
Metaphor
"When the luxuriant Ardour of his Youth / Succeeding Years had tam'd to better Growth, / And seem'd to break the Body's Crust away, / To give th'expanded Mind more Room to play; / Which, in its Evening, open'd on the Sight / Surprizing Beams of full Meridian Light, / As thrifty of its Splendor it had been, / And all its Lustre had reserv'd 'till then."
Metaphor in Context
As Years advance, th'abated Soul in most
Sinks to low Ebb, in second Childhood lost;
And feeble Age, dishonouring our Kind,
Robs all the Treasures of the wasted Mind;
With hov'ring Clouds obscures the muffled Sight,
And dim Suffusion of enduring Night:
But the rich Fervour of his rising Rage
Prevail'd o'er all th'Infirmities of Age;
And, unimpair'd by Injuries of Time,
Enjoy'd the Bloom of a perpetual Prime:
His Fire not less, he more correctly writ,
With ripen'd Judgment and digested Wit,
When the luxuriant Ardour of his Youth
Succeeding Years had tam'd to better Growth,
And seem'd to break the Body's Crust away,
To give th'expanded Mind more Room to play;
Which, in its Evening, open'd on the Sight
Surprizing Beams of full Meridian Light,
As thrifty of its Splendor it had been,
And all its Lustre had reserv'd 'till then.
Sinks to low Ebb, in second Childhood lost;
And feeble Age, dishonouring our Kind,
Robs all the Treasures of the wasted Mind;
With hov'ring Clouds obscures the muffled Sight,
And dim Suffusion of enduring Night:
But the rich Fervour of his rising Rage
Prevail'd o'er all th'Infirmities of Age;
And, unimpair'd by Injuries of Time,
Enjoy'd the Bloom of a perpetual Prime:
His Fire not less, he more correctly writ,
With ripen'd Judgment and digested Wit,
When the luxuriant Ardour of his Youth
Succeeding Years had tam'd to better Growth,
And seem'd to break the Body's Crust away,
To give th'expanded Mind more Room to play;
Which, in its Evening, open'd on the Sight
Surprizing Beams of full Meridian Light,
As thrifty of its Splendor it had been,
And all its Lustre had reserv'd 'till then.
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Date of Entry
08/29/2005
