"When Dinner comes, amid the various Feast, / That crowns your genial Board, where every Guest, / Or grave, or gay, is happy, and at home, / And none e'er sighed for the Mind's Elbow-room"
— Armstrong, John (1708/9-1779)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for A. Millar [etc.]
Date
1761
Metaphor
"When Dinner comes, amid the various Feast, / That crowns your genial Board, where every Guest, / Or grave, or gay, is happy, and at home, / And none e'er sighed for the Mind's Elbow-room"
Metaphor in Context
When Dinner comes, amid the various Feast,
That crowns your genial Board, where every Guest,
Or grave, or gay, is happy, and at home,
And none e'er sighed for the Mind's Elbow-room;
I warn you still to make your chief Repast
On one plain Dish, and trifle with the rest.
. . .
. . .
Beef, in a Fever, if your Stomach crave it,
Ox-cheek, or mawkish Cod, be sure you have it,
For still the Constitution, even the Case,
Directs the Stomach; this informs the Taste;
And what the Taste in her capricious Fits
Coyly, or even indifferently admits,
The peevish Stomach, or disdains to toil,
Or indolently works to vapid Chyle.
This Instinct of the Taste so seldom errs,
That if you love, yet smart for Cucumbers,
Or Plumbs of bad Repute, you'll likely find
'Twas for you separated what Nature join'd,
The spicey Kernel here, and there the Rind.
That crowns your genial Board, where every Guest,
Or grave, or gay, is happy, and at home,
And none e'er sighed for the Mind's Elbow-room;
I warn you still to make your chief Repast
On one plain Dish, and trifle with the rest.
. . .
. . .
Beef, in a Fever, if your Stomach crave it,
Ox-cheek, or mawkish Cod, be sure you have it,
For still the Constitution, even the Case,
Directs the Stomach; this informs the Taste;
And what the Taste in her capricious Fits
Coyly, or even indifferently admits,
The peevish Stomach, or disdains to toil,
Or indolently works to vapid Chyle.
This Instinct of the Taste so seldom errs,
That if you love, yet smart for Cucumbers,
Or Plumbs of bad Repute, you'll likely find
'Twas for you separated what Nature join'd,
The spicey Kernel here, and there the Rind.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "mind" and "room" in HDIS (Poetry)
Date of Entry
08/29/2005
