"Peaceful virtues" dwell within the "sacred cell" of the heart
— Gray, Thomas (1716-1771)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Gentleman's Magazine
Date
1759
Metaphor
"Peaceful virtues" dwell within the "sacred cell" of the heart
Metaphor in Context
Lo! where this silent marble weeps,
A friend, a wife, a mother sleeps:
A heart, within whose sacred cell
The peaceful virtues loved to dwell.
Affection warm, and faith sincere,
And soft humanity were there.
In agony, in death, resigned,
She felt the wound she left behind.
Her infant image, here below,
Sits smiling on a father's woe:
Whom what awaits, while yet he strays
Along the lonely vale of days?
A pang, to secret sorrow dear;
A sigh; an unavailing tear;
Till time shall every grief remove,
With life, with memory, and with love.
(ll. 1-16, p. 208-9)
A friend, a wife, a mother sleeps:
A heart, within whose sacred cell
The peaceful virtues loved to dwell.
Affection warm, and faith sincere,
And soft humanity were there.
In agony, in death, resigned,
She felt the wound she left behind.
Her infant image, here below,
Sits smiling on a father's woe:
Whom what awaits, while yet he strays
Along the lonely vale of days?
A pang, to secret sorrow dear;
A sigh; an unavailing tear;
Till time shall every grief remove,
With life, with memory, and with love.
(ll. 1-16, p. 208-9)
Categories
Provenance
HDIS
Citation
Ed. Roger Lonsdale. The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, and Oliver Goldsmith. London and New York: Longman and Norton: 1972
Date of Entry
11/11/2003
