"Still wilt thou hang upon my joyless soul / That clasps thy dear impression"
— Yearsley, Ann (bap. 1753, d. 1806)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for the author, and sold by G. G. J. and J. Robinson
Date
1787
Metaphor
"Still wilt thou hang upon my joyless soul / That clasps thy dear impression"
Metaphor in Context
Still wilt thou hang upon my joyless soul
That clasps thy dear impression;--who shall prove
Thou art not borne beyond the gloomy grave,
When thou art ever living to my mind?
Ah, yet be with me, kind instructive shade,
And sooth the mis'ries of successive hours;
Rove with me through the vale; paint the sad scene
When dreary Winter sits upon the world.
Chilling creative pow'r, such cruel Time
That robb'd me of a mother. Painful thought!
With what reluctance did my soul discern
Thy faculties decline; thine eye, thine ear,
Thy long-try'd mem'ry, sentimental pow'rs,
All sunk in calm gradation, while the sigh
Stole in soft silence from my youthful heart.
Mine was th'improving melancholy task,
To guide with pensive care thy feeble foot
Down life's descent, tho' I with horror saw
The grave that op'd beneath. Ye giddy minds,
Who place the essence of fallacious joy
In gaudy pomp, to you it is deny'd
To feel with pining Age, or sooth the pangs
Which Mem'ry leaves behind of jocund Youth.
That clasps thy dear impression;--who shall prove
Thou art not borne beyond the gloomy grave,
When thou art ever living to my mind?
Ah, yet be with me, kind instructive shade,
And sooth the mis'ries of successive hours;
Rove with me through the vale; paint the sad scene
When dreary Winter sits upon the world.
Chilling creative pow'r, such cruel Time
That robb'd me of a mother. Painful thought!
With what reluctance did my soul discern
Thy faculties decline; thine eye, thine ear,
Thy long-try'd mem'ry, sentimental pow'rs,
All sunk in calm gradation, while the sigh
Stole in soft silence from my youthful heart.
Mine was th'improving melancholy task,
To guide with pensive care thy feeble foot
Down life's descent, tho' I with horror saw
The grave that op'd beneath. Ye giddy minds,
Who place the essence of fallacious joy
In gaudy pomp, to you it is deny'd
To feel with pining Age, or sooth the pangs
Which Mem'ry leaves behind of jocund Youth.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "soul" and "impression" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Only 1 entry in ESTC (1787).
See Poems, on Various Subjects, by Ann Yearsley. (London: Printed for the author, and sold by G. G. J. and J. Robinson, 1787). <Link to ESTC><Link to LION>
See Poems, on Various Subjects, by Ann Yearsley. (London: Printed for the author, and sold by G. G. J. and J. Robinson, 1787). <Link to ESTC><Link to LION>
Date of Entry
05/17/2005
