"'Tis thus the arch deceiver, busy still / To ruin man, besets the female heart, / Insinuates evil counsel, and inflames / The hungry passions, that like arid flax / Catch at a spark, and mount into a blaze."
— Hurdis, James (1763-1801)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for J. Johnson
Date
1790
Metaphor
"'Tis thus the arch deceiver, busy still / To ruin man, besets the female heart, / Insinuates evil counsel, and inflames / The hungry passions, that like arid flax / Catch at a spark, and mount into a blaze."
Metaphor in Context
"Doubtless" said he: "O it delights me much
"To find such sense in woman, she can see
"The fatal tendency of tales like these.
"'Tis thus the arch deceiver, busy still
"To ruin man, besets the female heart,
"Insinuates evil counsel, and inflames
"The hungry passions, that like arid flax
"Catch at a spark, and mount into a blaze.
"The passions heated, reason strives in vain;
"Her empire's lost, and the distracted soul
"Becomes the sport of devils, wholly bent
"To turn and wind it in a world of sin."
"To find such sense in woman, she can see
"The fatal tendency of tales like these.
"'Tis thus the arch deceiver, busy still
"To ruin man, besets the female heart,
"Insinuates evil counsel, and inflames
"The hungry passions, that like arid flax
"Catch at a spark, and mount into a blaze.
"The passions heated, reason strives in vain;
"Her empire's lost, and the distracted soul
"Becomes the sport of devils, wholly bent
"To turn and wind it in a world of sin."
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
At least 4 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1790, 1792, 1796).
See Adriano; or, the First of June, a Poem. By the Author of the Village Curate. (London: 1790). Link to ECCO>
Finding also in editions of Hurdis's Poems (Dublin, 1790; Philadelphia, 1796). Text from Poems: By the Rev. James Hurdis 3 vols. (Oxford: At the University Press for J. Parker; Messrs. Rivington and Messrs. Longman and Co., 1808).
See Adriano; or, the First of June, a Poem. By the Author of the Village Curate. (London: 1790). Link to ECCO>
Finding also in editions of Hurdis's Poems (Dublin, 1790; Philadelphia, 1796). Text from Poems: By the Rev. James Hurdis 3 vols. (Oxford: At the University Press for J. Parker; Messrs. Rivington and Messrs. Longman and Co., 1808).
Date of Entry
08/11/2004
Date of Review
04/03/2012
