"Yet were the jarring passions tuned, / The soil from thorns and thistles clear, / Some latent virtue might appear."
— Leapor, Mary (1722-1746)
Author
Work Title
Date
1748
Metaphor
"Yet were the jarring passions tuned, / The soil from thorns and thistles clear, / Some latent virtue might appear."
Metaphor in Context
In Soto's bosom you may find
The glimmering of a worthy mind:
'Tis but a faint and feeble ray,
Imperfect as the dawning day;
Yet were the jarring passions tuned,
The soil from thorns and thistles clear,
Some latent virtue might appear.
I' th' morning catch him (early though,
Your bird will else be flown, I trow),
Ere he has reached the boozing-can,
You'll find the stamp of reasoning man:
Then see the wretch whom none can rule,
Ere night, a madman and a fool;
The witty Soto then you'll find
Just level with the brutal kind.
(ll. 1-16, p. 198 in Lonsdale)
The glimmering of a worthy mind:
'Tis but a faint and feeble ray,
Imperfect as the dawning day;
Yet were the jarring passions tuned,
The soil from thorns and thistles clear,
Some latent virtue might appear.
I' th' morning catch him (early though,
Your bird will else be flown, I trow),
Ere he has reached the boozing-can,
You'll find the stamp of reasoning man:
Then see the wretch whom none can rule,
Ere night, a madman and a fool;
The witty Soto then you'll find
Just level with the brutal kind.
(ll. 1-16, p. 198 in Lonsdale)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
See Poems Upon Several Occasions: By Mrs. Leapor (London: Printed and sold by J. Roberts, 1748). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Reading Roger Lonsdale's Eighteenth Century Women Poets (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989).
Reading Roger Lonsdale's Eighteenth Century Women Poets (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989).
Date of Entry
09/14/2009
Date of Review
05/23/2011
