"Mean while, the duties of a man revolve, / And steel thy bosom with the firm resolve"
— Stockdale, Percival (1736-1811)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for T. Davies
Date
1770
Metaphor
"Mean while, the duties of a man revolve, / And steel thy bosom with the firm resolve"
Metaphor in Context
THYRSIS.
I'll not neglect the charge, I'll urge thy interest:
Fail not to meet me here within an hour.
Mean while, the duties of a man revolve,
And steel thy bosom with the firm resolve,
Not to resign thyself a dupe to fear,
By giving scope to fancy's wild career.
For oh! Amyntas! when misguided man
Departs from reason's all-sufficient plan,
To happiness in vain presumes to tend,
By means that do not on himself depend;
Crosses attack him in a numerous train,
And all the family of moral pain.
Yet this but theory; I do not mean
From it's deep-rooted love thy heart to wean;
Love still must actuate the sequestered swain,
His highest pleasure, and acutest pain;
Or else a mere machine he'd draw his breath,
In dull indifference, in a living death.
But in thy breast let reason have her share;
A tempered passion gives a tempered care.
When reason's gentle government we quit,
Too warmly with an earthly object smit;
Blindly we're driven by passions furious sway,
The heddy mind is every trifle's play;
Each little circumstance our fear awakes,
Which reason in it's just proportion takes.
Thus does the shepherd, blest with vigorous eyes,
See objects in their proper form, and size:
But if distemper hath impaired his sight,
Bright Sol directs him with fallacious light;
He sees a robber in the rustling spray,
And for a wolf mistakes his faithful Tray.
I'll not neglect the charge, I'll urge thy interest:
Fail not to meet me here within an hour.
Mean while, the duties of a man revolve,
And steel thy bosom with the firm resolve,
Not to resign thyself a dupe to fear,
By giving scope to fancy's wild career.
For oh! Amyntas! when misguided man
Departs from reason's all-sufficient plan,
To happiness in vain presumes to tend,
By means that do not on himself depend;
Crosses attack him in a numerous train,
And all the family of moral pain.
Yet this but theory; I do not mean
From it's deep-rooted love thy heart to wean;
Love still must actuate the sequestered swain,
His highest pleasure, and acutest pain;
Or else a mere machine he'd draw his breath,
In dull indifference, in a living death.
But in thy breast let reason have her share;
A tempered passion gives a tempered care.
When reason's gentle government we quit,
Too warmly with an earthly object smit;
Blindly we're driven by passions furious sway,
The heddy mind is every trifle's play;
Each little circumstance our fear awakes,
Which reason in it's just proportion takes.
Thus does the shepherd, blest with vigorous eyes,
See objects in their proper form, and size:
But if distemper hath impaired his sight,
Bright Sol directs him with fallacious light;
He sees a robber in the rustling spray,
And for a wolf mistakes his faithful Tray.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "bosom" and "steel" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Only 1 entry in ESTC (1770).
The Amyntas of Tasso. Translated from the Original Italian by Percival Stockdale. (London: Printed for T. Davies, in Russel-Street, Covent-Garden, 1770). <Link to ESTC>
The Amyntas of Tasso. Translated from the Original Italian by Percival Stockdale. (London: Printed for T. Davies, in Russel-Street, Covent-Garden, 1770). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
06/13/2005
