"To holy Solitude I flew, / And bade the Muse her sympathy prepare! / There closeted with Thought, / The brain its shapeless travail wrought!"
— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for T. Becket
Date
1785
Metaphor
"To holy Solitude I flew, / And bade the Muse her sympathy prepare! / There closeted with Thought, / The brain its shapeless travail wrought!"
Metaphor in Context
Soon as the breath of Rumour blew
This solemn theme into the general ear,
To holy Solitude I flew,
And bade the Muse her sympathy prepare!
There closeted with Thought,
The brain its shapeless travail wrought!
The season to the subject solemnly did suit:
Day's dazzling orb was wholly down:
Pale Cynthia sat upon her silver throne;
Th' obtrusions of the light were clos'd
It seem'd, as Silence self repos'd,
For with the Air, the Earth and all her sons were mute:
All but the wretched, who, like me,
The gentle vigils kept of sympathy.
With cordial awe I liailed the shading night,
And kiss'd her dusky-robe which muffled thus the night.
This solemn theme into the general ear,
To holy Solitude I flew,
And bade the Muse her sympathy prepare!
There closeted with Thought,
The brain its shapeless travail wrought!
The season to the subject solemnly did suit:
Day's dazzling orb was wholly down:
Pale Cynthia sat upon her silver throne;
Th' obtrusions of the light were clos'd
It seem'd, as Silence self repos'd,
For with the Air, the Earth and all her sons were mute:
All but the wretched, who, like me,
The gentle vigils kept of sympathy.
With cordial awe I liailed the shading night,
And kiss'd her dusky-robe which muffled thus the night.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "thought" and "closet" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Samuel Jackson Pratt, Miscellanies, By Mr. Pratt, 4 vols. (London: printed for T. Becket, 1785). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
09/06/2005
Date of Review
07/19/2011
