The heart may bleed
— Collins, William (1721-1759)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for M. Cooper
Date
1743
Metaphor
The heart may bleed
Metaphor in Context
But wilder far the British laurel spread,
And wreaths less artful crown our poet's head.
Yet he alone to every scene could give
The historian's truth, and bid the manners live.
Waked at his call I view, with glad surprise,
Majestic forms of mighty monarchs rise.
There Henry's trumpets spread their loud alarms,
And laurelled Conquest waits her hero's arms.
Here gentler Edward claims a pitying sigh,
Scarce born to honours and so soon to die.
Yet shall thy throne, unhappy infant, bring
No beam of comfort to the guilty king?
The time shall come when Gloucester's heart shall bleed
In life's last hours, with horror of the deed:
When dreary visions shall at last present
Thy vengeful image in the midnight tent:
Thy hand unseen the secret death shall bear,
Blunt the weak sword and break the oppressive spear.
(ll. 75-92, p. 395)
And wreaths less artful crown our poet's head.
Yet he alone to every scene could give
The historian's truth, and bid the manners live.
Waked at his call I view, with glad surprise,
Majestic forms of mighty monarchs rise.
There Henry's trumpets spread their loud alarms,
And laurelled Conquest waits her hero's arms.
Here gentler Edward claims a pitying sigh,
Scarce born to honours and so soon to die.
Yet shall thy throne, unhappy infant, bring
No beam of comfort to the guilty king?
The time shall come when Gloucester's heart shall bleed
In life's last hours, with horror of the deed:
When dreary visions shall at last present
Thy vengeful image in the midnight tent:
Thy hand unseen the secret death shall bear,
Blunt the weak sword and break the oppressive spear.
(ll. 75-92, p. 395)
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
11/21/2003
