"Such Verse where Fear and humble Passion speak, / Where crowding Thoughts in soft Confusion break"
— Tollet, Elizabeth (1694-1754)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Date
1724, 1755
Metaphor
"Such Verse where Fear and humble Passion speak, / Where crowding Thoughts in soft Confusion break"
Metaphor in Context
Say, in what gentle Sounds, what healing Strain,
The friendly Muse shall sooth the wounded Swain?
Thy self, the Muses Servant, best may know
To mourn in moving Verse the latent Woe:
Such Verse where Fear and humble Passion speak,
Where crowding Thoughts in soft Confusion break,
With falt'ring Eloquence the Fair might move,
Tho' cold as Northern Snows to mutual Love.
Tho' that perhaps thou hast in vain essay'd:
The Muse, at best, is but a faithless Aid;
So Princes by Auxiliars are betray'd.
Lonely thou wander'st where the sounding Stones
Of Balliol's Walls return thy hollow Groans;
Or where Severus' Work describes the Bound
Of Roman Conquests on the British Ground.
The ruin'd Pile stood threatning o'er the Waste;
Prodigious Monument of Greatness past!
Hither perhaps the pensive Lover goes,
To shun his chearful Friends, and speak his Woes.
How art thou chang'd? Thou! who wert always known,
With modest Wit our temp'rate Mirth to crown.
What? Cannot Politicks and deep Debate
What menaces the Church, or shakes the State,
How great Eugenius clouds the waning Moon,
What Spain intends, or they who drink the Rhone,
From thy unquiet Breast these Cares remove?
This 'tis, unhappy Youth! to be in Love.
The friendly Muse shall sooth the wounded Swain?
Thy self, the Muses Servant, best may know
To mourn in moving Verse the latent Woe:
Such Verse where Fear and humble Passion speak,
Where crowding Thoughts in soft Confusion break,
With falt'ring Eloquence the Fair might move,
Tho' cold as Northern Snows to mutual Love.
Tho' that perhaps thou hast in vain essay'd:
The Muse, at best, is but a faithless Aid;
So Princes by Auxiliars are betray'd.
Lonely thou wander'st where the sounding Stones
Of Balliol's Walls return thy hollow Groans;
Or where Severus' Work describes the Bound
Of Roman Conquests on the British Ground.
The ruin'd Pile stood threatning o'er the Waste;
Prodigious Monument of Greatness past!
Hither perhaps the pensive Lover goes,
To shun his chearful Friends, and speak his Woes.
How art thou chang'd? Thou! who wert always known,
With modest Wit our temp'rate Mirth to crown.
What? Cannot Politicks and deep Debate
What menaces the Church, or shakes the State,
How great Eugenius clouds the waning Moon,
What Spain intends, or they who drink the Rhone,
From thy unquiet Breast these Cares remove?
This 'tis, unhappy Youth! to be in Love.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "thought" and "crowd" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
3 entries in ESTC (1724, 1755, 1756).
See Poems on Several Occasions. With Anne Boleyn to King Henry VIII. An Epistle. (London: Printed for John Clarke at the Bible under the Royal-Exchange, 1724). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO>
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>
See Poems on Several Occasions. With Anne Boleyn to King Henry VIII. An Epistle. (London: Printed for John Clarke at the Bible under the Royal-Exchange, 1724). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO>
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
03/07/2006
