"Since here defective, Heaven be so kind / With never-fading charms to dress my mind"
— Teft, Elizabeth (fl. 1741-7)
Author
Work Title
Date
1747
Metaphor
"Since here defective, Heaven be so kind / With never-fading charms to dress my mind"
Metaphor in Context
On Viewing Herself in a Glass
Was Nature angry when she formed my clay?
Or, urged by haste to finish, could not stay?
Or dressed with all her store some perfect she,
So lavish there, she'd none to spare for me?
I oft converse with those she's deemed to grace
With air and shape, fine mien, and charming face:
When self-surveyed, the glass hears this reply:
'Dear! what a strange, unpolished thing am I!'
Not that I think it hard, or once upbraid;
Conscious I am that transient charms will fade.
Not but, ye fair, your beauty gives delight:
'Tis pleasing, wond'rous pleasing to the sight.
Since here defective, Heaven be so kind
With never-fading charms to dress my mind!
(p. 216)
Was Nature angry when she formed my clay?
Or, urged by haste to finish, could not stay?
Or dressed with all her store some perfect she,
So lavish there, she'd none to spare for me?
I oft converse with those she's deemed to grace
With air and shape, fine mien, and charming face:
When self-surveyed, the glass hears this reply:
'Dear! what a strange, unpolished thing am I!'
Not that I think it hard, or once upbraid;
Conscious I am that transient charms will fade.
Not but, ye fair, your beauty gives delight:
'Tis pleasing, wond'rous pleasing to the sight.
Since here defective, Heaven be so kind
With never-fading charms to dress my mind!
(p. 216)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Lonsdale, R. Ed. Eighteenth Century Women Poets. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Date of Entry
07/23/2003
Date of Review
12/03/2008
