"The Friend of Life! Death unrelenting bears / An iron Heart, and laughs at human Cares."
— Broome, William (1689-1745); Hesiod
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for Henry Lintot
Date
1727, 1739
Metaphor
"The Friend of Life! Death unrelenting bears / An iron Heart, and laughs at human Cares."
Metaphor in Context
Hence thro' the Vault of Heaven huge Atlas rears
His giant Limbs, and props the golden Spheres:
Here sable Night, and here the beamy Day
Lodge and dislodge, alternate in their Sway.
A brazen Port the varying Pow'rs divides,
When Day forth issues, here the Night resides;
And when Night veils the Skies, obsequious Day,
Re-entring, plunges from the starry way.
She from her Lamp, with beaming Radiance bright,
Pours o'er th'expanded Earth a flood of Light:
But Night, by Sleep attended, rides in Shades,
Brother of Death, and all that breathes invades:
From her foul Womb they sprung, resistless Pow'rs,
Nurs'd in the Horrours of Tartarean Bow'rs,
Remote from Day, when with her flaming Wheels
She mounts the Skies, or paints the Western Hills:
With downy footsteps Sleep in silence glides
O'er the wide Earth, and o'er the spacious Tides;
The Friend of Life! Death unrelenting bears
An iron Heart, and laughs at human Cares;
She makes the mouldring Race of Man her Prey,
And ev'n th'immortal Pow'rs detest her sway.
(see pp. 227-9 in 1727 ed.)
His giant Limbs, and props the golden Spheres:
Here sable Night, and here the beamy Day
Lodge and dislodge, alternate in their Sway.
A brazen Port the varying Pow'rs divides,
When Day forth issues, here the Night resides;
And when Night veils the Skies, obsequious Day,
Re-entring, plunges from the starry way.
She from her Lamp, with beaming Radiance bright,
Pours o'er th'expanded Earth a flood of Light:
But Night, by Sleep attended, rides in Shades,
Brother of Death, and all that breathes invades:
From her foul Womb they sprung, resistless Pow'rs,
Nurs'd in the Horrours of Tartarean Bow'rs,
Remote from Day, when with her flaming Wheels
She mounts the Skies, or paints the Western Hills:
With downy footsteps Sleep in silence glides
O'er the wide Earth, and o'er the spacious Tides;
The Friend of Life! Death unrelenting bears
An iron Heart, and laughs at human Cares;
She makes the mouldring Race of Man her Prey,
And ev'n th'immortal Pow'rs detest her sway.
(see pp. 227-9 in 1727 ed.)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "iron" and "heart" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
4 entries in ESTC (1727, 1739, 1750).
Text from Poems on Several Occasions. By William Broome, 2nd ed., (London: Printed for Henry Lintot, 1739). Metaphors confirmed in 1727 ed. <Link to ECCO>
Text from Poems on Several Occasions. By William Broome, 2nd ed., (London: Printed for Henry Lintot, 1739). Metaphors confirmed in 1727 ed. <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
06/07/2005
