"He sends his Harbinger before, the Youth / Adorn'd with Beauty, Chastity and Truth: / To base unworthy Slavery betray'd, / With Fetters gall'd, in Chains of Iron laid, / Which pierc'd his Soul; till the celestial Word, / In destin'd Hour, his Innocence explor'd."
— Tollet, Elizabeth (1694-1754)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for T. Lownds
Date
1755
Metaphor
"He sends his Harbinger before, the Youth / Adorn'd with Beauty, Chastity and Truth: / To base unworthy Slavery betray'd, / With Fetters gall'd, in Chains of Iron laid, / Which pierc'd his Soul; till the celestial Word, / In destin'd Hour, his Innocence explor'd."
Metaphor in Context
O celebrate the Lord! invoke his Name;
His mighty Deeds to heathen Realms proclaim:
From him derive the Hymn, the solemn Song;
Of his stupendous Acts your Speech prolong.
Then triumph in his Name, for ever blest:
Who seek the Lord, let Joy inspire their Breast.
The Lord and his Omnipotence explore:
Require his sacred Presence ever-more.
Preserve in Memory his wondrous Deed,
His Signs, and Judgment by his Mouth decreed.
O ye of Abraham his Servant's Race;
Ye who from his elected Jacob trace
Your favour'd Line! the Lord our God is he;
And all the World submits to his Decree.
His Covenant he still in Mind retains;
His Promise, which immutable remains,
While thousand Ages roll: which he of yore
To Abraham engag'd, to Isaac swore;
The same he gave to Jacob in Command,
The League with Israel ever fix'd to stand.
This Land, he said, of Canaan shall be thine;
This your paternal Portion I assign.
Tho' yet but few in Number they were found;
A slender Train, and then on foreign Ground:
For then they wander'd thro' the bord'ring States,
In various Exiles, led by various Fates.
He suffer'd none to injure them; but mov'd
In their Defence, ev'n Monarchs he reprov'd.
Nor my Anointed touch; nor violate
Whom I have sent, the Messengers of Fate.
He calls; obsequious to the stern Command,
Commission'd Famine desolates the Land.
No longer the Support of corny Grain,
Destroy'd by him, does human Life maintain.
He sends his Harbinger before, the Youth
Adorn'd with Beauty, Chastity and Truth:
To base unworthy Slavery betray'd,
With Fetters gall'd, in Chains of Iron laid,
Which pierc'd his Soul; till the celestial Word,
In destin'd Hour, his Innocence explor'd.
Then sent the King, who there the Sceptre bore,
To break his Chains, and Freedom to restore:
Exalted him his regal Pow'r to share;
And trusted all his Treasures to his Care.
Permitted him his Princes to restrain,
And Wisdom to his Senate to explain.
To Ægypt then the rev'rend Israel came,
And Jacob sojourn'd in the Land of Ham.
To Numbers there he caus'd their Tribes to grow;
And gave them Force superior to their Foe:
For this dire Envy animates their Breast,
With faithless Wiles his Servants to molest.
His Servant Moses then, with Aaron join'd,
His sacred Choice Ambassadors design'd:
Disclos'd in public View his Signals stand
By these; his Prodigies in Ammon's Land.
Night he commanded from the nether Shade;
And all the wide Horizon Night array'd:
Nor then his Oracles they disobey'd.
Their worshipp'd Stream he turns to putrid Blood:
While dying roll upon the goary Flood,
Their[1] Monster-Gods, and Terrors of the Nile,
The[2] River-Horse and sealy Crocodile.
Then to the Frogs he gave a wond'rous Birth;
An upstart Offspring of the teeming Earth:
These thro' their Palaces in Numbers spread,
And lodge themselves upon the royal Bed.
He spake; and instant as the Word repair
Black Swarms of Flies to darken all the Air:
Thro' all the Region he the Insects brings
To wound their Bodies with envenom'd Stings.
In Place of Rain he gives them pond'rous Hail;
While on the Ground the fiery Meteors trail.
In vain the Vines their swelling Gems produce,
And rip'ning Figs digest their cruder Juice:
He blasts them all; and spreads the Country round
With levell'd Woods, all shatter'd on the Ground.
He calls; the Locusts, and a countless Band
Of wasteful Cankers, posting o'er the Land,
To Pillage destin'd it's Increase invade:
Devour the tender Plant, and springing Blade.
Wounded by him, thro' all their Confines dy'd
The blooming youth, their Parents eldest Pride.
His own he forth conducts, enrich'd with Store
Of silver Vases, and of golden Ore:
Not one in all their Kindred cou'd they find
Whose feeble Force with Sickness was declin'd.
Th' Ægyptians now with Joy their March beheld:
So had their Fear their Avarice expell'd.
Above a cloudy Canopy he spread:
And pointed Flames their nightly Journey led.
He to their Wish the tasteful Quail accords;
And with the Bread of Heav'n supplies their Boards:
He cleaves the Rock; the copious Streams diffuse
O'er the parch'd Sands, as ample Rivers Use.
For he what sacred Ties his Promise bind,
And Abraham his Servant calls to mind.
With Joy his rescu'd People forth he guides;
With Triumph his Elect: and he divides
To them of heathen Realms the conquer'd Soil;
A rich Inheritance in other's Toil.
Yet limited, that with religious Awe
They keep his Statutes, and observe his Law.
His mighty Deeds to heathen Realms proclaim:
From him derive the Hymn, the solemn Song;
Of his stupendous Acts your Speech prolong.
Then triumph in his Name, for ever blest:
Who seek the Lord, let Joy inspire their Breast.
The Lord and his Omnipotence explore:
Require his sacred Presence ever-more.
Preserve in Memory his wondrous Deed,
His Signs, and Judgment by his Mouth decreed.
O ye of Abraham his Servant's Race;
Ye who from his elected Jacob trace
Your favour'd Line! the Lord our God is he;
And all the World submits to his Decree.
His Covenant he still in Mind retains;
His Promise, which immutable remains,
While thousand Ages roll: which he of yore
To Abraham engag'd, to Isaac swore;
The same he gave to Jacob in Command,
The League with Israel ever fix'd to stand.
This Land, he said, of Canaan shall be thine;
This your paternal Portion I assign.
Tho' yet but few in Number they were found;
A slender Train, and then on foreign Ground:
For then they wander'd thro' the bord'ring States,
In various Exiles, led by various Fates.
He suffer'd none to injure them; but mov'd
In their Defence, ev'n Monarchs he reprov'd.
Nor my Anointed touch; nor violate
Whom I have sent, the Messengers of Fate.
He calls; obsequious to the stern Command,
Commission'd Famine desolates the Land.
No longer the Support of corny Grain,
Destroy'd by him, does human Life maintain.
He sends his Harbinger before, the Youth
Adorn'd with Beauty, Chastity and Truth:
To base unworthy Slavery betray'd,
With Fetters gall'd, in Chains of Iron laid,
Which pierc'd his Soul; till the celestial Word,
In destin'd Hour, his Innocence explor'd.
Then sent the King, who there the Sceptre bore,
To break his Chains, and Freedom to restore:
Exalted him his regal Pow'r to share;
And trusted all his Treasures to his Care.
Permitted him his Princes to restrain,
And Wisdom to his Senate to explain.
To Ægypt then the rev'rend Israel came,
And Jacob sojourn'd in the Land of Ham.
To Numbers there he caus'd their Tribes to grow;
And gave them Force superior to their Foe:
For this dire Envy animates their Breast,
With faithless Wiles his Servants to molest.
His Servant Moses then, with Aaron join'd,
His sacred Choice Ambassadors design'd:
Disclos'd in public View his Signals stand
By these; his Prodigies in Ammon's Land.
Night he commanded from the nether Shade;
And all the wide Horizon Night array'd:
Nor then his Oracles they disobey'd.
Their worshipp'd Stream he turns to putrid Blood:
While dying roll upon the goary Flood,
Their[1] Monster-Gods, and Terrors of the Nile,
The[2] River-Horse and sealy Crocodile.
Then to the Frogs he gave a wond'rous Birth;
An upstart Offspring of the teeming Earth:
These thro' their Palaces in Numbers spread,
And lodge themselves upon the royal Bed.
He spake; and instant as the Word repair
Black Swarms of Flies to darken all the Air:
Thro' all the Region he the Insects brings
To wound their Bodies with envenom'd Stings.
In Place of Rain he gives them pond'rous Hail;
While on the Ground the fiery Meteors trail.
In vain the Vines their swelling Gems produce,
And rip'ning Figs digest their cruder Juice:
He blasts them all; and spreads the Country round
With levell'd Woods, all shatter'd on the Ground.
He calls; the Locusts, and a countless Band
Of wasteful Cankers, posting o'er the Land,
To Pillage destin'd it's Increase invade:
Devour the tender Plant, and springing Blade.
Wounded by him, thro' all their Confines dy'd
The blooming youth, their Parents eldest Pride.
His own he forth conducts, enrich'd with Store
Of silver Vases, and of golden Ore:
Not one in all their Kindred cou'd they find
Whose feeble Force with Sickness was declin'd.
Th' Ægyptians now with Joy their March beheld:
So had their Fear their Avarice expell'd.
Above a cloudy Canopy he spread:
And pointed Flames their nightly Journey led.
He to their Wish the tasteful Quail accords;
And with the Bread of Heav'n supplies their Boards:
He cleaves the Rock; the copious Streams diffuse
O'er the parch'd Sands, as ample Rivers Use.
For he what sacred Ties his Promise bind,
And Abraham his Servant calls to mind.
With Joy his rescu'd People forth he guides;
With Triumph his Elect: and he divides
To them of heathen Realms the conquer'd Soil;
A rich Inheritance in other's Toil.
Yet limited, that with religious Awe
They keep his Statutes, and observe his Law.
Categories
Citation
3 entries in ESTC (1755, 1756).
Text from reissue of 1755 edition: Poems on Several Occasions. With Anne Boleyn to King Henry VIII. An Epistle. By Mrs. Elizabeth Tollet, 2nd ed. (London: Printed for T. Lownds, 1756). <Link to ESTC>
Text from reissue of 1755 edition: Poems on Several Occasions. With Anne Boleyn to King Henry VIII. An Epistle. By Mrs. Elizabeth Tollet, 2nd ed. (London: Printed for T. Lownds, 1756). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
06/22/2004
Date of Review
05/23/2011
