"Ye Pow'rs above my Breast with courage steel, / That when the Hour arrives, I may not feel / A Mother's weakness melting this sad Heart"
— Jerningham, Edward (1727-1812)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for R. and J. Dodsley
Date
1761
Metaphor
"Ye Pow'rs above my Breast with courage steel, / That when the Hour arrives, I may not feel / A Mother's weakness melting this sad Heart"
Metaphor in Context
Ye Pow'rs above my Breast with courage steel,
That when the Hour arrives, I may not feel
A Mother's weakness melting this sad Heart,
Nor thro' my soul keen pangs of Sorrow dart.
O'er me that hour kind Heav'n thy influence cast,
No--rather let that moment be my last.
What moment? say! alas have I decreed
My Son to Death, my only Born to bleed?
Ah cruel Mother! but more cruel Vows,
Plighted to Hector! Thou more cruel Spouse!
Yet Vows of Love extend but to the Grave--
Why doubt I then my darling Child to save!
Why solace to myself refuse to give!
Vanish my Fears, Astyanax shall live:
And Nature's sacred impulse be obey'd,
In spite of Hector, and the Vows I've made.
Forbear--ah whither is my Reason fled?
Or with my Hector is my Passion dead?
Are these the means (oh Shame) I take to prove
A Faith unshaken, and a constant Love?
--Then let the Mother with destroying Breath,
Devote her Infant to untimely Death;
Let me, forgetful of my Sex, resign
Each mild resolve--and cruelty be mine!
Ah no--ye bloody Thoughts from me remove,
Is this the Language of maternal Love?
Oh my Astyanax, oh all that's dear,
For whom now gushes this unbidden Tear:
When thou art lost, again my Hector bleeds,
To deep-felt woe, still deeper woe succeeds:
Again Despair will torture ev'ry vein,
And all my sorrows past commence again.
That when the Hour arrives, I may not feel
A Mother's weakness melting this sad Heart,
Nor thro' my soul keen pangs of Sorrow dart.
O'er me that hour kind Heav'n thy influence cast,
No--rather let that moment be my last.
What moment? say! alas have I decreed
My Son to Death, my only Born to bleed?
Ah cruel Mother! but more cruel Vows,
Plighted to Hector! Thou more cruel Spouse!
Yet Vows of Love extend but to the Grave--
Why doubt I then my darling Child to save!
Why solace to myself refuse to give!
Vanish my Fears, Astyanax shall live:
And Nature's sacred impulse be obey'd,
In spite of Hector, and the Vows I've made.
Forbear--ah whither is my Reason fled?
Or with my Hector is my Passion dead?
Are these the means (oh Shame) I take to prove
A Faith unshaken, and a constant Love?
--Then let the Mother with destroying Breath,
Devote her Infant to untimely Death;
Let me, forgetful of my Sex, resign
Each mild resolve--and cruelty be mine!
Ah no--ye bloody Thoughts from me remove,
Is this the Language of maternal Love?
Oh my Astyanax, oh all that's dear,
For whom now gushes this unbidden Tear:
When thou art lost, again my Hector bleeds,
To deep-felt woe, still deeper woe succeeds:
Again Despair will torture ev'ry vein,
And all my sorrows past commence again.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "breast" and "steel" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Only 1 entry in ESTC (1761).
Andromache to Pyrrhus. An Heroick Epistle (London: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley, 1761). <Link to ESTC>
Andromache to Pyrrhus. An Heroick Epistle (London: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley, 1761). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
06/13/2005
