"What Briton wears a heart, steel'd to the touch / Of gentle Pity? "
— Dodd, William (1729-1777)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by W. Faden and Sold by E. Dilly
Date
w. 1757, 1758
Metaphor
"What Briton wears a heart, steel'd to the touch / Of gentle Pity? "
Metaphor in Context
Alas, how lost their beauties, and how dead
To yonder hapless multitude, that rove
In silent sort along the sea-beat shore:
And send full oft their wishes and their sighs
Big with distress, to that dear native land
From whence, sad chance of war, torn by rude force
They languish prisoners in a foreign clime!
No more they view their lov'd Acadia's plains;
No more their happy homes, and fertile fields;
No more, their joyful families around,
They taste the pleasures of domestic peace,
Nor quaff full draughts from freedom flowing bowl.
Their plains so lov'd, their fields with plenty crown'd,
Rude soldiers waste: and they, immers'd in woe,
Tread the lone beach: while on their languid sight
The pleasing views around unheeded rise;--
They rise on captives!--What's the gaudy room,
The silken tapestry, or the cedar'd floor,
To the lone linnet, sever'd from his mate
And forests wild and free?--Who shall forbid
The generous tear to swell the pitying eye?
What tho' of hostile race, still they are men:
And while we view them weeping o'er the graves
Of friends departed, while we hear their prayers,
Kneeling in sorrow sad those graves around:
While we behold them slowly as they tread,
With visage wan, and port disconsolate
From burden'd breast heaving the deep-fetch'd groan,
From languid eye bursting the trembling tear;--
What Briton wears a heart, steel'd to the touch
Of gentle Pity? Who can then refuse
A sympathetic feeling of their woe!
To yonder hapless multitude, that rove
In silent sort along the sea-beat shore:
And send full oft their wishes and their sighs
Big with distress, to that dear native land
From whence, sad chance of war, torn by rude force
They languish prisoners in a foreign clime!
No more they view their lov'd Acadia's plains;
No more their happy homes, and fertile fields;
No more, their joyful families around,
They taste the pleasures of domestic peace,
Nor quaff full draughts from freedom flowing bowl.
Their plains so lov'd, their fields with plenty crown'd,
Rude soldiers waste: and they, immers'd in woe,
Tread the lone beach: while on their languid sight
The pleasing views around unheeded rise;--
They rise on captives!--What's the gaudy room,
The silken tapestry, or the cedar'd floor,
To the lone linnet, sever'd from his mate
And forests wild and free?--Who shall forbid
The generous tear to swell the pitying eye?
What tho' of hostile race, still they are men:
And while we view them weeping o'er the graves
Of friends departed, while we hear their prayers,
Kneeling in sorrow sad those graves around:
While we behold them slowly as they tread,
With visage wan, and port disconsolate
From burden'd breast heaving the deep-fetch'd groan,
From languid eye bursting the trembling tear;--
What Briton wears a heart, steel'd to the touch
Of gentle Pity? Who can then refuse
A sympathetic feeling of their woe!
Categories
Provenance
Searching "heart" and "steel" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
2 entries in ESTC (1758, 1777).
See Thoughts on the Glorious Epiphany of the Lord Jesus Christ. A Poetical Essay Written at Southampton in the Year MDCCLVII. Sacred to Friendship. by the Reverend William Dodd (London: Printed by W. Faden and Sold by E. Dilly, 1758). <Link to ESTC>
See Thoughts on the Glorious Epiphany of the Lord Jesus Christ. A Poetical Essay Written at Southampton in the Year MDCCLVII. Sacred to Friendship. by the Reverend William Dodd (London: Printed by W. Faden and Sold by E. Dilly, 1758). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
06/09/2005
