"But Flint itself can teach to feel, / And soon subdue a breast of steel."
— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for Richard Phillips
Date
1805
Metaphor
"But Flint itself can teach to feel, / And soon subdue a breast of steel."
Metaphor in Context
Another article is ours,
Proud Gunnery! with all its pow'rs;
And, sooth to say, in that great trade
Bath has such vast improvements made,
That Birmingham, though three times bigger,
Cannot presume to pull the trigger:
Our Ladies here profess the art
Of musketry, to pierce the heart,
So many fascinating ways,
That their light troops must wear the bays;
Like Patent Pistols, they require
No hacking Flints to rouse the fire;
But Flint itself can teach to feel,
And soon subdue a breast of steel.
Proud Gunnery! with all its pow'rs;
And, sooth to say, in that great trade
Bath has such vast improvements made,
That Birmingham, though three times bigger,
Cannot presume to pull the trigger:
Our Ladies here profess the art
Of musketry, to pierce the heart,
So many fascinating ways,
That their light troops must wear the bays;
Like Patent Pistols, they require
No hacking Flints to rouse the fire;
But Flint itself can teach to feel,
And soon subdue a breast of steel.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "breast" and "steel" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Text 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. 8th ed. (London: Printed for Richard Phillips, 1805), III, 74-88. <Link to third volume in Google Books>
Date of Entry
06/13/2005
Date of Review
07/19/2011
