"And oft thy prostituted wheel / Turns to enrich a heart of steel."

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

Author

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

Work Title

Invocation to Fortune. Presented to a Young Lady, with a Share in a Lottery-Ticket. [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 oft thy prostituted wheel / Turns to enrich a heart of steel."
Metaphor in Context
Hence thy deluded votaries shower
Indignant curses on thy power:
Hence fools are creatures of thy smile;
Thy favourites oft the base and vile:
And oft thy prostituted wheel
Turns to enrich a heart of steel;
Or some unsocial, sordid elf,
Who has no idol but himself;
Or points the prize to some State knave,
Or Fashion's fool, or Passion's slave:
Yet when the Good thy help invoke,
That cruel wheel receives a spoke;
Or whirls from Virtue far away,
And leaves soft Beauty to decay.
Yes, Goddess! hence it is we shower
Indignant curses on thy power!
Categories
Mineral::Steel::Heart of Steel
Provenance
Searching "heart" and "sterling" in HDIS (Poetry)
Date of Entry
06/03/2005
Date of Review
07/19/2011

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