"Whose waxen Hearts with warm emotion melt"
— Woodhouse, James (bap. 1735, d. 1820)
Work Title
Date
1814, 1816, 1896
Metaphor
"Whose waxen Hearts with warm emotion melt"
Metaphor in Context
Begone, ye Profligates! ye proud! ye vain!
With all the sordid, silly, trifling, Train!
No rythmic Numbers, here, I tune for You;
I chaunt, alone, to charm the favour'd Few,
Whose warm, and feeling, bosoms, bask, or freeze,
In Joy's bright sunshine, or bleak Sorrow's breeze!
Hearts, whose best energies, elastic, bound
To seek the cell where Want and Woe are found!
Whose waxen Hearts with warm emotion melt,
While Bounty blesses where Affection feels!
Fix'd in the focal gleams of that great Light,
That rules all realms of Nature, day and night!
Nor only governs mere material parts,
But thro' all Intellect full influence darts!
Not flickering flames, like Passion, Lust, and Pride,
Which twist Simplicity, and Truth, aside;
Impressing spurious hopes, with fickle fire;
Which Pilgrims tempt to snares, then, soon expire!
Not Ostentation's self-absorbing rays,
Where light-wing'd Moths whirl round each worshipt blaze--
Not glow-worm Vanity's poor, glimmering, spark,
That lights its lamp to show the World it's dark--
Nor hypocritic glare, like phosphor, glows,
Stinks, quick, or dead, but no bless'd heat bestows--
But those bright beams, descending from above,
That light up all things with the warmth of Love!
That constant Sunshine which irradiates Thee,
Thou sky-born Beauty, fair Philanthropy!
[...]
With all the sordid, silly, trifling, Train!
No rythmic Numbers, here, I tune for You;
I chaunt, alone, to charm the favour'd Few,
Whose warm, and feeling, bosoms, bask, or freeze,
In Joy's bright sunshine, or bleak Sorrow's breeze!
Hearts, whose best energies, elastic, bound
To seek the cell where Want and Woe are found!
Whose waxen Hearts with warm emotion melt,
While Bounty blesses where Affection feels!
Fix'd in the focal gleams of that great Light,
That rules all realms of Nature, day and night!
Nor only governs mere material parts,
But thro' all Intellect full influence darts!
Not flickering flames, like Passion, Lust, and Pride,
Which twist Simplicity, and Truth, aside;
Impressing spurious hopes, with fickle fire;
Which Pilgrims tempt to snares, then, soon expire!
Not Ostentation's self-absorbing rays,
Where light-wing'd Moths whirl round each worshipt blaze--
Not glow-worm Vanity's poor, glimmering, spark,
That lights its lamp to show the World it's dark--
Nor hypocritic glare, like phosphor, glows,
Stinks, quick, or dead, but no bless'd heat bestows--
But those bright beams, descending from above,
That light up all things with the warmth of Love!
That constant Sunshine which irradiates Thee,
Thou sky-born Beauty, fair Philanthropy!
[...]
Categories
Provenance
Searching "wax" and "heart" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Poem first published in its entirety in 1896. The 1814 first edition receives notice in The New Monthly Magazine (March 1815); the poem was written "in the last century" (w. 1795-1820?).
Text from The Life and Poetical Works of James Woodhouse, ed. R. I. Woodhouse, 2 vols. (London: The Leadenhall Press, 1896). <Link to Hathi Trust> <Link to LION>
Text from The Life and Poetical Works of James Woodhouse, ed. R. I. Woodhouse, 2 vols. (London: The Leadenhall Press, 1896). <Link to Hathi Trust> <Link to LION>
Date of Entry
03/27/2005
