"As when thou call'st the shuddering thoughts to mourn / O'er talents wither'd in the untimely urn; / To grieve that Penury's resistless storm / Beat cold and deadly o'er the shrinking form, / Where mighty Genius had those powers enshrined, / Whose reign is boundless o'er each feeling mind; / To mourn that anguish durst the heart invade / Beneath the regal purple's awful shade, / That, steep'd in blood, at the fanatic frown, / From Charles' pale brows should fall the thorny crown; / That England's virgin majesty should close / A long illustrious life in bitterest woes; / She, who, in wisdom firm, as vast in power, / On grateful millions shed the prosperous hour."
— Seward, Anna (1742-1809)
Author
Place of Publication
Edinburgh
Publisher
Printed by James Ballantyne and Co. for John Ballantyne and Co. London. Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme
Date
1783, 1810
Metaphor
"As when thou call'st the shuddering thoughts to mourn / O'er talents wither'd in the untimely urn; / To grieve that Penury's resistless storm / Beat cold and deadly o'er the shrinking form, / Where mighty Genius had those powers enshrined, / Whose reign is boundless o'er each feeling mind; / To mourn that anguish durst the heart invade / Beneath the regal purple's awful shade, / That, steep'd in blood, at the fanatic frown, / From Charles' pale brows should fall the thorny crown; / That England's virgin majesty should close / A long illustrious life in bitterest woes; / She, who, in wisdom firm, as vast in power, / On grateful millions shed the prosperous hour."
Metaphor in Context
Sing on, sweet Bard! when spring's gay warblers cease
To celebrate the jocund year's increase,
And summer must no more his thirst subdue
In the expanding rose-bud's lucid dew;
But, with their fading hues, and closing bells,
The pale, shrunk flowers shall strew the whiten'd dells,
And autumn's lingering steps, retreating, press
Their fallen petals down the lone recess,
Still may thy song, to every rising gale,
Sigh through the dim and melancholy vale;
And when the aerial archer, as he flies,
Wings the red arrow through the gloomy skies,
And furious Trent, high o'er his banks shall pour
The turbid waters round thy favourite bower,
Ceaseless do thou the rising strain prolong,
And hail stern winter with thy solemn song!
While for the lyre, that erst to the soft days
Of bloomy summer breath'd the lovely lays,
On thy nerv'd arm the Eolian shell be slung,
Full to the tempest's angry wailing flung;
And he, whose strains, on cold Temora's hill,
Mourn'd o'er the eddies of the darken'd rill,
The fame resounding of the fallen brave,
O'er Erin's heath, and Ullin's stormy wave,
He, on his thin, grey mist descending slow,
Shrill as the frequent blast is heard to blow,
'Mid the lone rocks thy wandering steps shall find,
And lift thy harp to winter's loudest wind.
O! when its tones fall murmuring on the floods,
Deeply respondent to the groaning woods,
Each lofty note, that hymns the rifled year,
With force impressive shall assail the ear,
As when thou call'st the shuddering thoughts to mourn
O'er talents wither'd in the untimely urn;
To grieve that Penury's resistless storm
Beat cold and deadly o'er the shrinking form,
Where mighty Genius had those powers enshrin'd,
Whose reign is boundless o'er each feeling mind;
To mourn that anguish durst the heart invade
Beneath the regal purple's awful shade,
That, steep'd in blood, at the fanatic frown,
From Charles' pale brows should fall the thorny crown;
That England's virgin majesty should close
A long illustrious life in bitterest woes;
She, who, in wisdom firm, as vast in power,
On grateful millions shed the prosperous hour.
O! how unlike those councils dark, that hurl'd
The torch of Discord o'er the western world!
To celebrate the jocund year's increase,
And summer must no more his thirst subdue
In the expanding rose-bud's lucid dew;
But, with their fading hues, and closing bells,
The pale, shrunk flowers shall strew the whiten'd dells,
And autumn's lingering steps, retreating, press
Their fallen petals down the lone recess,
Still may thy song, to every rising gale,
Sigh through the dim and melancholy vale;
And when the aerial archer, as he flies,
Wings the red arrow through the gloomy skies,
And furious Trent, high o'er his banks shall pour
The turbid waters round thy favourite bower,
Ceaseless do thou the rising strain prolong,
And hail stern winter with thy solemn song!
While for the lyre, that erst to the soft days
Of bloomy summer breath'd the lovely lays,
On thy nerv'd arm the Eolian shell be slung,
Full to the tempest's angry wailing flung;
And he, whose strains, on cold Temora's hill,
Mourn'd o'er the eddies of the darken'd rill,
The fame resounding of the fallen brave,
O'er Erin's heath, and Ullin's stormy wave,
He, on his thin, grey mist descending slow,
Shrill as the frequent blast is heard to blow,
'Mid the lone rocks thy wandering steps shall find,
And lift thy harp to winter's loudest wind.
O! when its tones fall murmuring on the floods,
Deeply respondent to the groaning woods,
Each lofty note, that hymns the rifled year,
With force impressive shall assail the ear,
As when thou call'st the shuddering thoughts to mourn
O'er talents wither'd in the untimely urn;
To grieve that Penury's resistless storm
Beat cold and deadly o'er the shrinking form,
Where mighty Genius had those powers enshrin'd,
Whose reign is boundless o'er each feeling mind;
To mourn that anguish durst the heart invade
Beneath the regal purple's awful shade,
That, steep'd in blood, at the fanatic frown,
From Charles' pale brows should fall the thorny crown;
That England's virgin majesty should close
A long illustrious life in bitterest woes;
She, who, in wisdom firm, as vast in power,
On grateful millions shed the prosperous hour.
O! how unlike those councils dark, that hurl'd
The torch of Discord o'er the western world!
Categories
Provenance
Searching "mind" and "invad" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Text from The Poetical Works of Anna Seward; with Extracts from Her Literary Correspondence. ed. Walter Scott. 3 vols. (Edinburgh: Printed by James Ballantyne and Co. for John Ballantyne and Co., 1810).
Date of Entry
05/04/2005
