The "tender, feeling heart" is "Compassion's throne"

— Huddesford, George (bap. 1749, d. 1809)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for Leigh, Sotheby and Son ... by T. Burton [etc.]
Date
1804
Metaphor
The "tender, feeling heart" is "Compassion's throne"
Metaphor in Context
D---, in sweet friendship's firmest bands
Link'd to my inmost soul! now pensive Eve
  Steals slowly thro' yon misty meads,
What polish'd page of Rome, or wiser Greece,
  Say, shall we next enraptur'd turn?
Shall we by murm'ring Mincio rove? or sit
  Beneath the darksome pines that Pan
Planted in that Sicilian valley wild,
  True region of poetic bliss?
Or in Achilles' loudly-thund'ring car
  Be whirl'd o'er Troy's ensanguin'd plain;
Or see him strive Patroclus' shrieking ghost,
  Poor unsubstantial shade! to clasp
With eager arms?--But let us never fail
  Nightly to visit the soft bard
Best suited to the tender, feeling heart,
  Compassion's throne:
O joy refin'd!
To watch the big tear from thy meaning eye
  Steal secret, while Medea's soul
With jealousy, maternal love, with rage
  And haughty indignation fir'd,
Now points the dagger to her smiling babes,
  Now, touch'd with nature, hurls away
The deathful steel! Or while Orestes starts
  In madness from the opiate couch
Where his fond Pylades for many a day,
  And many a bitter night, had watch'd
His limbs convuls'd, and ghastly staring eyes
  Fix'd on the Furies! Milder scenes
Invite us next--the grove where Comus built
  His magic dome, and Echo heard
The nymph's distress:--or where, in cavern deep
  Sweet Melancholy sits, to hear
The bubb'ling brook, or awful bell, or plaint
  Of ever-wakeful Philomel.--
Thus with the Muses pass the blissful hours
  Till, dearest Youth, snatch'd far away,
In solitude thou leav'st thy weeping Friend.
  Who then with cordial looks and smiles
Can lull my cares? To whom can I unfold
  My secret breast? Whom else can trust?
Whom else can love? Beneath cold Midnight's gleam
  Thy absence will I oft lament,
Stretch'd in thy fav'rite grove, near Itchin's stream,
  Close to those ivy'd mould'ring walls,
While the lone Cloysters echo to my woes.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "throne" and "heart" in HDIS (Poetry)
Date of Entry
08/07/2004

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.