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"And Thou, Minerva, pr'ythee say, / Why with so bright a mental ray, / And all that marks the blue-ey'd Maid, / Hast thou this favour'd Boy array'd?"

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Author

Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Work Title

Questions to Cupid, Respecting Henry Horribow. [from Harvest-Home: Consisting of Supplementary Gleanings, Original Dramas and Poems, Contributions of Literary Friends, and Select Re-publications, Including Sympathy, a Poem, Revised, Corrected, and Enlarged. From the Eighth edition]

Place of Publication

London

Publisher

Printed for Richard Phillips

Date

1805

Metaphor

"And Thou, Minerva, pr'ythee say, / Why with so bright a mental ray, / And all that marks the blue-ey'd Maid, / Hast thou this favour'd Boy array'd?"

Metaphor in Context

And Thou, Minerva, pr'ythee say,
Why with so bright a mental ray,
And all that marks the blue-ey'd Maid,
Hast thou this favour'd Boy array'd?
With ready Thought, Expression fit,
And sterling Sense, and playful Wit!
If these rare Pow'rs are giv'n the Youth
But to disguise immortal Truth,
And Falsehood thus belie the God,
Would he were duller than a Clod!