Authors may "drag down Reason from her throne / Or make her reign unaided and alone"
— Stevenson, William (1730-1783)
Place of Publication
Edinburgh
Date
1761, 1765
Metaphor
Authors may "drag down Reason from her throne / Or make her reign unaided and alone"
Metaphor in Context
Authors should too employ my choicest time,
Correct their diction, as their thoughts sublime.
Authors, whose pleasing lessons daily read,
Better the heart, while they inform the head;
Still, as by magic, Passion's inbred storm,
And portray Virtue in her comeliest form;
Not such as drag down Reason from her throne
Or make her reign unaided and alone;
Both ill extremes, and foes to humankind,
That warp the judgment, and debase the mind;
Where fatal doctrines charm in fair disguise,
Oft unperceiv'd by superficial eyes:
Amid a glow of subtile language, still
By taste selected, and arrang'd with skill,
Errour conceal'd from vulgar notice lurks,
And sure her darling scheme, though slowly, works.
As in a bed of flow'rs, or thorny brake,
Fold within fold lies hid the crested snake.
Correct their diction, as their thoughts sublime.
Authors, whose pleasing lessons daily read,
Better the heart, while they inform the head;
Still, as by magic, Passion's inbred storm,
And portray Virtue in her comeliest form;
Not such as drag down Reason from her throne
Or make her reign unaided and alone;
Both ill extremes, and foes to humankind,
That warp the judgment, and debase the mind;
Where fatal doctrines charm in fair disguise,
Oft unperceiv'd by superficial eyes:
Amid a glow of subtile language, still
By taste selected, and arrang'd with skill,
Errour conceal'd from vulgar notice lurks,
And sure her darling scheme, though slowly, works.
As in a bed of flow'rs, or thorny brake,
Fold within fold lies hid the crested snake.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "throne" and "reason" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
At least 4 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1761, 1765, 1780).
Text from Original Poems on Several Subjects. In Two Volumes. By William Stevenson (Edinburgh: Printed by A. Donaldson and J. Reid. Sold by Alexander Donaldson, in London and Edinburgh, 1765). <Link to ESTC>
See Vertumnus; or, The Progress of Spring: A Poetical Essay. (Glasgow : Printed for Robert Urie, 1761). [published anonymously, ESTC does not give Stevenson as author.] <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO>
See also Vertumnus; or the Progress of Spring: A Poetical Essay. (Glasgow: printed by R. and T. Duncan, 1780). 1761). [Published anonymously, ESTC does not give Stevenson as author, not in ECCO and not consulted.] <Link to ESTC>
Text from Original Poems on Several Subjects. In Two Volumes. By William Stevenson (Edinburgh: Printed by A. Donaldson and J. Reid. Sold by Alexander Donaldson, in London and Edinburgh, 1765). <Link to ESTC>
See Vertumnus; or, The Progress of Spring: A Poetical Essay. (Glasgow : Printed for Robert Urie, 1761). [published anonymously, ESTC does not give Stevenson as author.] <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO>
See also Vertumnus; or the Progress of Spring: A Poetical Essay. (Glasgow: printed by R. and T. Duncan, 1780). 1761). [Published anonymously, ESTC does not give Stevenson as author, not in ECCO and not consulted.] <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
07/28/2004
