Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

To His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, A Poem

1785

"'Twixt shame and passion floats the struggling mind, / To Virtue now, and now to vice inclin'd, / This frowns refusal, that persuades to yield, / Till Reason falls, and Passion takes the field."

As varying Pleasure darts her smiles around,
And strews her ruddiest rose-buds on the ground,
As shines Love's nectar in Youth's flattering glass,
And Nature gilds the minutes as they pass.
Swift glides the heart from Virtue's fair intent,
And faint Denial half implies consent.
'Twixt shame and passion floats the struggling mind,
To Virtue now, and now to vice inclin'd,
This frowns refusal, that persuades to yield,
Till Reason falls, and Passion takes the field,
Then guard, oh! noble youth, the sliding heart,
Sov'reigns are subjects to the master part;
The ruling passion still maintains its post,
Monarch o'er monarchs, and the mortal's lost.

Motion::Floating Motion::Struggling War::Field of Battle

Searching HDIS for "ruling passion"

Only 1 entry in ECCO and ESTC (1785).

See volume 1 of Miscellanies, by Mr. Pratt, in Four Volumes. (London : printed for T. Becket, in Pall-Mall, Bookseller to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and their Royal Highnesses the Princes, 1785). <Link to ECCO>

Psychomachia

05/25/2004