"In panoply of lead and brass / Their cautious hearts unfold, / Which beauty cannot pierce, alas! / Unless with darts of gold!"
— Grant [née MacVicar], Anne (1755-1838)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by C. Whittingham ... for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme [etc.]
Date
1808
Metaphor
"In panoply of lead and brass / Their cautious hearts unfold, / Which beauty cannot pierce, alas! / Unless with darts of gold!"
Metaphor in Context
Secure, his adamantine heart
In learning's musty cell
Repell'd poor Cupid's powerful dart,
And slighted every belle.
Had he like Aldo no repast
But what his bow supplied,
He'd dare well pleas'd the wintry blast
When shells were smoking wide.
But college sophs of modern times,
In Sloth's soft lap reclin'd,
Will praise the fair in well-turn'd rhymes,
Yet leave them to the wind.
He talks of gaining hearts of beaux,
To please the angry fair;
But whether they have hearts to lose,
He does not know nor care.
Ah! sly observer, deeply read
In Nature's ample page;
Too well you know that beaux well-bred
In this self-loving age,
In panoply of lead and brass
Their cautious heart s unfold,
Which beauty cannot pierce, alas!
Unless with darts of gold!
In learning's musty cell
Repell'd poor Cupid's powerful dart,
And slighted every belle.
Had he like Aldo no repast
But what his bow supplied,
He'd dare well pleas'd the wintry blast
When shells were smoking wide.
But college sophs of modern times,
In Sloth's soft lap reclin'd,
Will praise the fair in well-turn'd rhymes,
Yet leave them to the wind.
He talks of gaining hearts of beaux,
To please the angry fair;
But whether they have hearts to lose,
He does not know nor care.
Ah! sly observer, deeply read
In Nature's ample page;
Too well you know that beaux well-bred
In this self-loving age,
In panoply of lead and brass
Their cautious heart s unfold,
Which beauty cannot pierce, alas!
Unless with darts of gold!
Categories
Provenance
Searching "heart" and "brass" in HDIS (Poetry)
Date of Entry
06/07/2005
