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"When you, my Friend, in lucky hour, / Bestow'd the sight-relieving power; / A boon as useful as 'tis kind-- / Yet had no Eye but of the mind-- / Had I been deaf, and blind, and dumb, / For half a century to come, / That Eye, in vision bright and clear, / Would view your worth, and hold it dear"

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

Author

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

Work Title

To a Friend, on Receiving a Pair of Spectacles. [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

"When you, my Friend, in lucky hour, / Bestow'd the sight-relieving power; / A boon as useful as 'tis kind-- / Yet had no Eye but of the mind-- / Had I been deaf, and blind, and dumb, / For half a century to come, / That Eye, in vision bright and clear, / Would view your worth, and hold it dear"

Metaphor in Context

When you, my Friend, in lucky hour,
Bestow'd the sight-relieving power;
A boon as useful as 'tis kind--
Yet had no Eye but of the mind--
Had I been deaf, and blind, and dumb,
For half a century to come,
That Eye, in vision bright and clear,
Would view your worth, and hold it dear.
But now, assisted by your gift,
Which gives the Optic Nerves a lift--
I see to tell you, till they sever,
Or close in death--I'm yours for ever!