"Such were the working thoughts which swelled the breast / Of generous BOSWEL."
— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for Joseph Johnson
Date
1773
Metaphor
"Such were the working thoughts which swelled the breast / Of generous BOSWEL."
Metaphor in Context
What then should BRITONS feel? should they not catch
The warm contagion of heroic ardour,
And kindle at a fire so like their own?
Such were the working thoughts which swelled the breast
Of generous BOSWEL; when with noble aim
And views beyond the narrow beaten track
By trivial fancy trod, he turn'd his course
From polish'd Gallia's soft delicious vales,
From the grey reliques of imperial Rome,
From her long galleries of laurel'd stone,
Her chisel'd heroes, and her marble gods,
Whose dumb majestic pomp yet awes the world,
To animated froms of patriot zeal,
Warm in the living majesty of virtue,
Elate with fearless spirit, firm, resolv'd,
By fortune nor subdu'd nor aw'd by power.
(pp. 2-3; cf. ll. 18-30, pp. 60-1 in Broadview ed.)
The warm contagion of heroic ardour,
And kindle at a fire so like their own?
Such were the working thoughts which swelled the breast
Of generous BOSWEL; when with noble aim
And views beyond the narrow beaten track
By trivial fancy trod, he turn'd his course
From polish'd Gallia's soft delicious vales,
From the grey reliques of imperial Rome,
From her long galleries of laurel'd stone,
Her chisel'd heroes, and her marble gods,
Whose dumb majestic pomp yet awes the world,
To animated froms of patriot zeal,
Warm in the living majesty of virtue,
Elate with fearless spirit, firm, resolv'd,
By fortune nor subdu'd nor aw'd by power.
(pp. 2-3; cf. ll. 18-30, pp. 60-1 in Broadview ed.)
Categories
Provenance
Reading; confirmed in ECCO-TCP.
Citation
At least 10 entries in ESTC (1773, 1774, 1776, 1777, 1792).
Barbauld, Mrs. (Anna Letitia), 1743-1825. See Poems (London: Printed for Joseph Johnson, 1773). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO-TCP>
Some text drawn from The Works of Anna Lætitia Barbauld. With a Memoir by Lucy Aikin (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Browne, and Green, 1825).
Reading McCarthy, William and Kraft, Elizabeth, eds. Anna Letitia Barbauld: Selected Poetry and Prose (Ontario: Broadview Press, 2002).
Barbauld, Mrs. (Anna Letitia), 1743-1825. See Poems (London: Printed for Joseph Johnson, 1773). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO-TCP>
Some text drawn from The Works of Anna Lætitia Barbauld. With a Memoir by Lucy Aikin (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Browne, and Green, 1825).
Reading McCarthy, William and Kraft, Elizabeth, eds. Anna Letitia Barbauld: Selected Poetry and Prose (Ontario: Broadview Press, 2002).
Date of Entry
07/24/2003
