"Faint is the lesson reason's rules impart: / [Drama] pours it strong and instant through the heart"
— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Date
1739
Metaphor
"Faint is the lesson reason's rules impart: / [Drama] pours it strong and instant through the heart"
Metaphor in Context
Since Athens first began to draw mankind,
To picture life, and show the impassion'd mind;
The truly wise have ever deem'd the stage
The moral school of each enlighten'd age.
There, in full pomp, the tragic Muse appears,
Queen of soft sorrows, and of useful fears.
Faint is the lesson reason's rules impart:
She pours it strong, and instant through the heart.
If virtue is her theme, we sudden glow
With generous flame; and what we feel, we grow.
If vice she paints, indignant passions rise;
The villain sees himself with loathing eyes.
His soul starts, conscious, at another's groan,
And the pale tyrant trembles on his throne
To picture life, and show the impassion'd mind;
The truly wise have ever deem'd the stage
The moral school of each enlighten'd age.
There, in full pomp, the tragic Muse appears,
Queen of soft sorrows, and of useful fears.
Faint is the lesson reason's rules impart:
She pours it strong, and instant through the heart.
If virtue is her theme, we sudden glow
With generous flame; and what we feel, we grow.
If vice she paints, indignant passions rise;
The villain sees himself with loathing eyes.
His soul starts, conscious, at another's groan,
And the pale tyrant trembles on his throne
Categories
Provenance
Searching "rule" and "reason" in HDIS (Poetry
Citation
Thomson, James (1700-1748). Liberty, The Castle of Indolence, and other Poems. Ed. James Sambrook (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986).
Date of Entry
06/22/2004
