"O! blessings on thee!--soft, this ray of hope / Dazzles my aching senses, and I start / As from a dream of horror, where the brain, / Stampt with the semblance of some phantom dire / Reflects it, waking, to the fearful gaze!"
— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Date
1796, 1806
Metaphor
"O! blessings on thee!--soft, this ray of hope / Dazzles my aching senses, and I start / As from a dream of horror, where the brain, / Stampt with the semblance of some phantom dire / Reflects it, waking, to the fearful gaze!"
Metaphor in Context
HONORIA
O! blessings on thee!--soft, this ray of hope
Dazzles my aching senses, and I start
As from a dream of horror, where the brain,
Stampt with the semblance of some phantom dire,
Reflects it, waking, to the fearful gaze!
Now, gentle Agnes! seek my Alferenzi!
Tell him, the gloom that hides a maiden's blush
Presents no terror to the spotless soul!
Guilt fears the witching hour of spectred night,
When on the murd'rers front the starting drop
Sits like the dew upon the pois'nous toad!
But virtue, guided by its own pure ray,
Treads the rude path, undaunted and secure.
Now to thy task, and may the pow'rs of pity
Guard thee from every ill! I will away,
And in my prison chamber wait thy signal.
O! blessings on thee!--soft, this ray of hope
Dazzles my aching senses, and I start
As from a dream of horror, where the brain,
Stampt with the semblance of some phantom dire,
Reflects it, waking, to the fearful gaze!
Now, gentle Agnes! seek my Alferenzi!
Tell him, the gloom that hides a maiden's blush
Presents no terror to the spotless soul!
Guilt fears the witching hour of spectred night,
When on the murd'rers front the starting drop
Sits like the dew upon the pois'nous toad!
But virtue, guided by its own pure ray,
Treads the rude path, undaunted and secure.
Now to thy task, and may the pow'rs of pity
Guard thee from every ill! I will away,
And in my prison chamber wait thy signal.
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>
[titled "The Sicilian Lover, A Dramatic Poem"]
See also The Sicilian Lover. A Tragedy. In Five Acts. By Mary Robinson, Author of Poems, Angllina, &c. &c. (London: Printed for the author, by Hookham and Carpenter, New Bond Street, 1796). <Link to ECCO>
[titled "The Sicilian Lover, A Dramatic Poem"]
See also The Sicilian Lover. A Tragedy. In Five Acts. By Mary Robinson, Author of Poems, Angllina, &c. &c. (London: Printed for the author, by Hookham and Carpenter, New Bond Street, 1796). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
08/16/2004
Date of Review
01/09/2012
