"Thus oft' disguis'd, in poverty we find / Bright genius sparkle thro' an humble mind. / What tho' no gold or diamonds gild the mine, / No glittering strata in the caverns shine; / Yet useful minerals, of various birth, /Lodge in the fruitful bowels of the earth."
— Bowden, Samuel (fl. 1733-1761)
Place of Publication
Bath
Publisher
Printed by T. Boddely, for the author [etc.]
Date
1754
Metaphor
"Thus oft' disguis'd, in poverty we find / Bright genius sparkle thro' an humble mind. / What tho' no gold or diamonds gild the mine, / No glittering strata in the caverns shine; / Yet useful minerals, of various birth, /Lodge in the fruitful bowels of the earth."
Metaphor in Context
Hail! ye bleak mountains--lin'd with hidden store,
Fallacious wilds, concealing mines of ore;
Rich veins of calamine the desart fills
And lead the solid basis of thy hills:
Thus oft' disguis'd, in poverty we find
Bright genius sparkle thro' an humble mind.
What tho' no gold or diamonds gild the mine,
No glittering strata in the caverns shine;
Yet useful minerals, of various birth,
Lodge in the fruitful bowels of the earth.
Here savage scenes in wild confusion reign,
And desolating prospects fill the plain.
Thick fern in humble forests waves around,
And sable furzes darken all the ground.
Scatter'd some solitary trees appear,
And o'er the waste their haggard branches rear;
Whose naked fronts, like the stern Cyclops stand,
When they pursu'd Ulysses to the strand,
The wither'd tops confess eternal blight,
And hungry ravens on the branches light.
Fallacious wilds, concealing mines of ore;
Rich veins of calamine the desart fills
And lead the solid basis of thy hills:
Thus oft' disguis'd, in poverty we find
Bright genius sparkle thro' an humble mind.
What tho' no gold or diamonds gild the mine,
No glittering strata in the caverns shine;
Yet useful minerals, of various birth,
Lodge in the fruitful bowels of the earth.
Here savage scenes in wild confusion reign,
And desolating prospects fill the plain.
Thick fern in humble forests waves around,
And sable furzes darken all the ground.
Scatter'd some solitary trees appear,
And o'er the waste their haggard branches rear;
Whose naked fronts, like the stern Cyclops stand,
When they pursu'd Ulysses to the strand,
The wither'd tops confess eternal blight,
And hungry ravens on the branches light.
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Poems on Various Subjects; with some Essays in Prose, Letters to Correspondents, &c. and A Treatise on Health. By Samuel Bowden (Bath: T. Boddely, 1754). <Link to Google Books>
Date of Entry
05/27/2005
