"Oak was his heart, his breast with steel / Thrice mail'd, that first the brittle keel / Committed to the murtherous deep."
— Welsted, Leonard (1688-1747)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed and sold by J. Roberts
Date
1727, 1787
Metaphor
"Oak was his heart, his breast with steel / Thrice mail'd, that first the brittle keel / Committed to the murtherous deep."
Metaphor in Context
Oak was his heart, his breast with steel
Thrice mail'd, that first the brittle keel
Committed to the murtherous deep;
Nor dreaded battling winds, that sweep
The flood, the Hyads stormy train,
Nor furious South, of Adria's main
The lawless monarch, be his will
T' enrage the gulphy wave, or still:
All fear of death did he repell,
Who, tearless, saw the billows swell;
Saw the fell monsters floating by,
And rocks, deaf to the seaman's cry!
Vain has Almighty Wisdom plac'd,
For earth's fix'd bourne, the watery waste;
If impious men the art have found
T' o'erleap th' inviolable mound:
Bold man, that all things dares assay,
Through crimes forbidden makes his way.
Bold Japhet's race, of human-kind
The curse, celestial fire purloin'd;
The fire celestial ill-obtain'd,
Straight, the wan lingering Phthisis reign'd;
Came Fevers, with pestiferous breath,
A spotted legion! and slow Death,
Far off before, though sure decreed,
Catch'd up his steps, and march'd with speed.
Presuming Dædalus! he tried
Through air, with wings to man deny'd,
To journey; rash Alcmena's son
The barriers broke of Acheron.
To deeds stupendous mortals rise;
We ev'n in folly brave the skies,
Nor suffer Jove, through stubborn pride,
To lay th' uplifted bolt aside.
(pp. 178-80, ll. 9-42; cf. p. 29-31 in 1727 ed.)
Thrice mail'd, that first the brittle keel
Committed to the murtherous deep;
Nor dreaded battling winds, that sweep
The flood, the Hyads stormy train,
Nor furious South, of Adria's main
The lawless monarch, be his will
T' enrage the gulphy wave, or still:
All fear of death did he repell,
Who, tearless, saw the billows swell;
Saw the fell monsters floating by,
And rocks, deaf to the seaman's cry!
Vain has Almighty Wisdom plac'd,
For earth's fix'd bourne, the watery waste;
If impious men the art have found
T' o'erleap th' inviolable mound:
Bold man, that all things dares assay,
Through crimes forbidden makes his way.
Bold Japhet's race, of human-kind
The curse, celestial fire purloin'd;
The fire celestial ill-obtain'd,
Straight, the wan lingering Phthisis reign'd;
Came Fevers, with pestiferous breath,
A spotted legion! and slow Death,
Far off before, though sure decreed,
Catch'd up his steps, and march'd with speed.
Presuming Dædalus! he tried
Through air, with wings to man deny'd,
To journey; rash Alcmena's son
The barriers broke of Acheron.
To deeds stupendous mortals rise;
We ev'n in folly brave the skies,
Nor suffer Jove, through stubborn pride,
To lay th' uplifted bolt aside.
(pp. 178-80, ll. 9-42; cf. p. 29-31 in 1727 ed.)
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry); Found again "breast" and "steel"
Citation
2 hits in ECCO and ESTC (1727, 1787).
See A Discourse to the Right Honourable Sir Robert Walpole. to Which Is Annex’d, Proposals for Translating the Whole Works of Horace, With a Specimen of the Performance. by Leonard Welsted, Esq. (London: Printed and sold by J. Roberts in Warwick-Lane, 1727). &t;Link to ESTC>
Found searching in The Works, in Verse and Prose, of Leonard Welsted, Esq; Some Time Clerk in Ordinary at the Office of Ordnance in the Tower of London. Now First Collected. With Historical Notes, and Biographical Memoirs of the Author, by John Nichols. (London: Printed by and for the Editor, in Red-Lion-Passage, Fleet-Street, 1787). <Link to ECCO>
See A Discourse to the Right Honourable Sir Robert Walpole. to Which Is Annex’d, Proposals for Translating the Whole Works of Horace, With a Specimen of the Performance. by Leonard Welsted, Esq. (London: Printed and sold by J. Roberts in Warwick-Lane, 1727). &t;Link to ESTC>
Found searching in The Works, in Verse and Prose, of Leonard Welsted, Esq; Some Time Clerk in Ordinary at the Office of Ordnance in the Tower of London. Now First Collected. With Historical Notes, and Biographical Memoirs of the Author, by John Nichols. (London: Printed by and for the Editor, in Red-Lion-Passage, Fleet-Street, 1787). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
06/11/2005
