"But Care no Desert can exclude, / We haunt ourselves in Solitude."
— Wesley, Samuel, the Younger (1691-1739)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by Edward Say
Date
1736, 1743
Metaphor
"But Care no Desert can exclude, / We haunt ourselves in Solitude."
Metaphor in Context
Did Peace in Rural Shades abide,
Were Groves and Fields the seat of Rest,
The Conqu'ror punish'd for his Pride,
Thrown from a Monarch to a Beast,
Had found, when grazing in the Field,
The Bliss his Palace could not yield.
Whose Mind with Loneliness can suit,
Who makes in Caves his dark abode,
Is unreflecting as a Brute,
Or self-sufficient as a God.
But Care no Desert can exclude,
We haunt ourselves in Solitude.
Were Groves and Fields the seat of Rest,
The Conqu'ror punish'd for his Pride,
Thrown from a Monarch to a Beast,
Had found, when grazing in the Field,
The Bliss his Palace could not yield.
Whose Mind with Loneliness can suit,
Who makes in Caves his dark abode,
Is unreflecting as a Brute,
Or self-sufficient as a God.
But Care no Desert can exclude,
We haunt ourselves in Solitude.
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
At least 3 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1736, 1743).
Poems on Several Occasions. By Samuel Wesley, A.M. Master of Blundell’s School at Tiverton, Devon. Sometime Student of Christ-Church; and Near Twenty Years Usher in Westminster-School. (London: Printed by Edward Say in Warwick-Lane, 1736). <Link to ESTC>
Text from 2nd edition of 1743. See Poems on Several Occasions. By Samuel Wesley, A.M., 2nd edition, with additions. (Cambridge: Printed by J. Bentham, Printer to the University, for J. Brotherton in Cornhill, and S. Birt in Ave-Mary Lane, London, 1743 [1744]). <Link to ESTC>
Poems on Several Occasions. By Samuel Wesley, A.M. Master of Blundell’s School at Tiverton, Devon. Sometime Student of Christ-Church; and Near Twenty Years Usher in Westminster-School. (London: Printed by Edward Say in Warwick-Lane, 1736). <Link to ESTC>
Text from 2nd edition of 1743. See Poems on Several Occasions. By Samuel Wesley, A.M., 2nd edition, with additions. (Cambridge: Printed by J. Bentham, Printer to the University, for J. Brotherton in Cornhill, and S. Birt in Ave-Mary Lane, London, 1743 [1744]). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
01/18/2006
