"Yet laws there are, whose power each being feels, Impress'd on every heart with Nature's seals."
— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)
Place of Publication
London
Date
1801, 1803
Metaphor
"Yet laws there are, whose power each being feels, Impress'd on every heart with Nature's seals."
Metaphor in Context
Savage! behold thy triumph, yet beware!
Oft is the spider taken in her snare;
In her own subtle web has oft been found,
E'en as she threw her latent poisons round.
Hail to the Laws! the guardians of the land,
And doubly hail'd the props on which they stand;
Hail Order's fabric! by true wisdom made;
And curs'd be they who would the dome invade!
Yet laws there are, whose power each being feels,
Impress'd on every heart with Nature's seals;
Enroll'd in nature's chancery sublime,
Sanction'd by truth, and unimpair'd by time.
O Man preserve thyself in time of need!
In awful characters so stands the deed:
For this the lamb has bled, the fawn has fought,
And set the tyrant of the woods at naught;
The timid hare upon the wolf has sprung,
While deep-ton'd howlings thro' the forest rung;
And O! what has not Man atchiev'd for this,
On fortune's height, in penury's abyss?
The trembling coward, and the bending slave,
For this have felt the courage of the brave.
A fiend there is--the despot of our frame,
More fell than death--and Famine is his name!
Stung by the rav'nous principle he goes,
Furious and fierce, nor check nor fear he knows;
The strongest bonds and laws before him fall,
The laws of Famine supersede them all;
With keener energy he sweeps along
As goads the madd'ning power of hunger strong;
To bloody victim, victims still succeed,
And bed-rid parents, cradled infants bleed;
Like the gaunt lion on his prey he pours,
And his own flesh in agony devours:
But for his tyrant--foes of man beware,
Nor dare the view of famine in despair!
Oft is the spider taken in her snare;
In her own subtle web has oft been found,
E'en as she threw her latent poisons round.
Hail to the Laws! the guardians of the land,
And doubly hail'd the props on which they stand;
Hail Order's fabric! by true wisdom made;
And curs'd be they who would the dome invade!
Yet laws there are, whose power each being feels,
Impress'd on every heart with Nature's seals;
Enroll'd in nature's chancery sublime,
Sanction'd by truth, and unimpair'd by time.
O Man preserve thyself in time of need!
In awful characters so stands the deed:
For this the lamb has bled, the fawn has fought,
And set the tyrant of the woods at naught;
The timid hare upon the wolf has sprung,
While deep-ton'd howlings thro' the forest rung;
And O! what has not Man atchiev'd for this,
On fortune's height, in penury's abyss?
The trembling coward, and the bending slave,
For this have felt the courage of the brave.
A fiend there is--the despot of our frame,
More fell than death--and Famine is his name!
Stung by the rav'nous principle he goes,
Furious and fierce, nor check nor fear he knows;
The strongest bonds and laws before him fall,
The laws of Famine supersede them all;
With keener energy he sweeps along
As goads the madd'ning power of hunger strong;
To bloody victim, victims still succeed,
And bed-rid parents, cradled infants bleed;
Like the gaunt lion on his prey he pours,
And his own flesh in agony devours:
But for his tyrant--foes of man beware,
Nor dare the view of famine in despair!
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
First published as Bread; or, The Poor (Messrs. Longman and Rees, and T. Becket, 1801). [Not consulted]
Retitled Cottage-Pictures; or, The Poor: A Poem, with Notes and illustrations, by Mr. Pratt. Third edition, with Five Engravings, by Cardon, after Loutherbourg (London: Printed for J. N. Longman and O. Rees, Vernor and Hood, J. Hatchard, and T. Becket, 1803). <Link to Google Books>
Retitled Cottage-Pictures; or, The Poor: A Poem, with Notes and illustrations, by Mr. Pratt. Third edition, with Five Engravings, by Cardon, after Loutherbourg (London: Printed for J. N. Longman and O. Rees, Vernor and Hood, J. Hatchard, and T. Becket, 1803). <Link to Google Books>
Date of Entry
04/17/2005
Date of Review
07/19/2011
