"With pleased attention midst his scenes we find / Each glowing thought that warms the female mind"
— Collins, William (1721-1759)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for M. Cooper
Date
1743
Metaphor
"With pleased attention midst his scenes we find / Each glowing thought that warms the female mind"
Metaphor in Context
Yet ah! so bright her morning's opening ray,
In vain our Britain hoped an equal day!
No second growth the western isle could bear,
At once exhausted with too rich a year.
Too nicely Jonson knew the critic's part;
Nature in him was almost lost in art.
Of softer mould the gentle Fletcher came,
The next in order as the next in name.
With pleased attention midst his scenes we find
Each glowing thought that warms the female mind;
Each melting sigh, and every tender tear,
The lover's wishes and the virgin's fear.
His every strain the Smiles and Graces own;
But stronger Shakespeare felt for man alone:
Drawn by his pen, our ruder passions stand
The unrivalled picture of his early hand.
(ll. 51-66, pp. 393-4)
In vain our Britain hoped an equal day!
No second growth the western isle could bear,
At once exhausted with too rich a year.
Too nicely Jonson knew the critic's part;
Nature in him was almost lost in art.
Of softer mould the gentle Fletcher came,
The next in order as the next in name.
With pleased attention midst his scenes we find
Each glowing thought that warms the female mind;
Each melting sigh, and every tender tear,
The lover's wishes and the virgin's fear.
His every strain the Smiles and Graces own;
But stronger Shakespeare felt for man alone:
Drawn by his pen, our ruder passions stand
The unrivalled picture of his early hand.
(ll. 51-66, pp. 393-4)
Categories
Provenance
Searching keywords in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Published anonymously in London by Mary Cooper and originally titled Verses Humbly Addres'd to Sir Thomas Hanmer. Collected in The Poetical Works (1781). Text from The Poems (1969).
See Verses Humbly Address'd to Sir Thomas Hanmer. on His Edition of Shakespear's Works. by a Gentleman of Oxford (London, Printed for M. Cooper, 1743). <Link to ECCO>
Reading The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, and Oliver Goldsmith, ed. Roger Lonsdale (London and New York: Longman and Norton: 1972).
See Verses Humbly Address'd to Sir Thomas Hanmer. on His Edition of Shakespear's Works. by a Gentleman of Oxford (London, Printed for M. Cooper, 1743). <Link to ECCO>
Reading The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, and Oliver Goldsmith, ed. Roger Lonsdale (London and New York: Longman and Norton: 1972).
Date of Entry
11/12/2003
