"Could, with one thought, most beauteous castles build, / With tasteful furniture, all, instant, fill'd, / But could not monies coin, or form firm land / To make fond Fancy's mimic turrets stand!"
— Woodhouse, James (bap. 1735, d. 1820)
Work Title
Date
1814, 1816, 1896
Metaphor
"Could, with one thought, most beauteous castles build, / With tasteful furniture, all, instant, fill'd, / But could not monies coin, or form firm land / To make fond Fancy's mimic turrets stand!"
Metaphor in Context
He was a Bard with better prospects born;
Too great to envy, and too good to scorn!
Benevolence unbounded! matchless Taste!
With Wealth to banish Want, but none to waste.
His heart not free from Poet's common curse,
Ambition, boundless! perch'd on feeble purse!
Sublime conceptions, lodg'd in procreant pate,
Which, magic schemes, could, ev'ry hour, create--
Could, with one thought, most beauteous castles build,
With tasteful furniture, all, instant, fill'd,
But could not monies coin, or form firm land
To make fond Fancy's mimic turrets stand!
Penurious Genius should, from Prudence, learn
Fair lessons, Fancy's plans, and hopes, to spurn;
In covert, close, frail Insufficience shroud,
Nor show the World wild fabrics on a cloud.
Too great to envy, and too good to scorn!
Benevolence unbounded! matchless Taste!
With Wealth to banish Want, but none to waste.
His heart not free from Poet's common curse,
Ambition, boundless! perch'd on feeble purse!
Sublime conceptions, lodg'd in procreant pate,
Which, magic schemes, could, ev'ry hour, create--
Could, with one thought, most beauteous castles build,
With tasteful furniture, all, instant, fill'd,
But could not monies coin, or form firm land
To make fond Fancy's mimic turrets stand!
Penurious Genius should, from Prudence, learn
Fair lessons, Fancy's plans, and hopes, to spurn;
In covert, close, frail Insufficience shroud,
Nor show the World wild fabrics on a cloud.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "coin" and "fancy" 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
04/14/2005
Date of Review
07/31/2009
