"While shadows, blanks to reason's orb, / In dread succession haunt the brain"
— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)
Place of Publication
London
Date
1797, 1806
Metaphor
"While shadows, blanks to reason's orb, / In dread succession haunt the brain"
Metaphor in Context
A thousand torments wait on love;
The sigh, the tear, the anguish'd groan!
But he who never learnt to prove
A jealous pang, has nothing known.
For jealousy, supreme of woe,
Nurs'd by distorted fancy's pow'r,
Can round the heart bid mis'ry grow,
Which darkens with the ling'ring hour;
While shadows, blanks to reason 's orb,
In dread succession haunt the brain;
And pangs, that ev'ry pang absorb,
In wild convulsive tumults reign.
At morn, at eve, the fever burns,
While phantoms tear the aching breast;
Day brings no calm, and night returns,
But marks no soothing hour of rest.
Nor when the bosom's wasted fires
Are all extinct, is anguish o'er;
For jealousy, which ne'er expires,
Can wound--when passion is no more.
(Cf. Vol. I, p. 290 in 1797 printing)
The sigh, the tear, the anguish'd groan!
But he who never learnt to prove
A jealous pang, has nothing known.
For jealousy, supreme of woe,
Nurs'd by distorted fancy's pow'r,
Can round the heart bid mis'ry grow,
Which darkens with the ling'ring hour;
While shadows, blanks to reason 's orb,
In dread succession haunt the brain;
And pangs, that ev'ry pang absorb,
In wild convulsive tumults reign.
At morn, at eve, the fever burns,
While phantoms tear the aching breast;
Day brings no calm, and night returns,
But marks no soothing hour of rest.
Nor when the bosom's wasted fires
Are all extinct, is anguish o'er;
For jealousy, which ne'er expires,
Can wound--when passion is no more.
(Cf. Vol. I, p. 290 in 1797 printing)
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Text from The Poetical Works of the Late Mrs Mary Robinson: Including Many Pieces Never Before Published. 3 vols. (London: Printed for Richard Phillips, 1806). <Link to vol. I in Google Books><Vol. II><Vol. III>
Found in Walsingham; or, the Pupil of Nature. A Domestic Story. By Mary Robinson, 4 vols. (London: Printed for T. N. Longman, 1797). <Link to ECCO>
Found in Walsingham; or, the Pupil of Nature. A Domestic Story. By Mary Robinson, 4 vols. (London: Printed for T. N. Longman, 1797). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
03/07/2005
