"But plant ideas like a printing-press; / Or, graven copper-plate, again to roll / The pristine stamp of proud Employer's Soul."
— Woodhouse, James (bap. 1735, d. 1820)
Work Title
Date
1814, 1816, 1896
Metaphor
"But plant ideas like a printing-press; / Or, graven copper-plate, again to roll / The pristine stamp of proud Employer's Soul."
Metaphor in Context
Will you your heavenly Sire's best blessing slight?
Be Dupes by day? and Negroes through the night?
For trifles be betray'd? for bubbles bought?
For toys yield up all Liberty but thought?
Corporeal faculties be moved, or stand,
Like wheels and levers in Mechanic's hand?
Exert your intellectual strength, and skill,
The mere Automatons of others' Will!
Your eyes be blind; or, more than seen, perceive?
Your ears be deaf; breasts more than's meant believe?
Thought, introduc'd, and lodg'd within the head,
Lie dormant, there; or, number'd with the dead.
The brain resembling only large hotel,
Where none but foreign families may dwell;
Like sham ambassadorial shadow, sent
To signify frail Sovereign's false intent.
Perfidious Pimp--or Spy--or abject Scout,
On some base expedition posted out,
To act pert Duns, or Bully's bolder part,
Nor feel one kind emotion move the heart!
Amanuensis, never to digress,
But plant ideas like a printing-press;
Or, graven copper-plate, again to roll
The pristine stamp of proud Employer's Soul.
Still trudging every road, like common hack,
To take Fools' trifles--bring Fops' baggage back.
All native Cogitations' private store,
To celibacy sworn, must breed no more;
But, unproductive, all, in secret cell,
Like insulated Nuns--Monks--Hermits--dwell--
No propagated offspring brought to birth
To speak their wisdom, or their parents' worth.
Be Dupes by day? and Negroes through the night?
For trifles be betray'd? for bubbles bought?
For toys yield up all Liberty but thought?
Corporeal faculties be moved, or stand,
Like wheels and levers in Mechanic's hand?
Exert your intellectual strength, and skill,
The mere Automatons of others' Will!
Your eyes be blind; or, more than seen, perceive?
Your ears be deaf; breasts more than's meant believe?
Thought, introduc'd, and lodg'd within the head,
Lie dormant, there; or, number'd with the dead.
The brain resembling only large hotel,
Where none but foreign families may dwell;
Like sham ambassadorial shadow, sent
To signify frail Sovereign's false intent.
Perfidious Pimp--or Spy--or abject Scout,
On some base expedition posted out,
To act pert Duns, or Bully's bolder part,
Nor feel one kind emotion move the heart!
Amanuensis, never to digress,
But plant ideas like a printing-press;
Or, graven copper-plate, again to roll
The pristine stamp of proud Employer's Soul.
Still trudging every road, like common hack,
To take Fools' trifles--bring Fops' baggage back.
All native Cogitations' private store,
To celibacy sworn, must breed no more;
But, unproductive, all, in secret cell,
Like insulated Nuns--Monks--Hermits--dwell--
No propagated offspring brought to birth
To speak their wisdom, or their parents' worth.
Provenance
Searching "soul" and "stamp" 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
04/08/2005
