"To cherish Grace, and twine the golden chain, / Uniting Minds, and making one of twain."
— Woodhouse, James (bap. 1735, d. 1820)
Work Title
Date
1814, 1816, 1896
Metaphor
"To cherish Grace, and twine the golden chain, / Uniting Minds, and making one of twain."
Metaphor in Context
Thro' this incongruous Crowd no Friendship's found--
This grows, alone, on consecrated ground!
In such a soil, in such inclement sky,
Mildews, and blights, both leaves, and blooms, destroy!
Pride's caterpillars eat its infant fruits--
Lust's canker-worms corrode its feeble roots--
The fires of Passion, or the frosts of Sloth,
If ever planted, still impede its growth--
Like damps, or droughts, destroy its tender head,
Or tempests tear it from its barren bed:
Religion can, alone, light up its fires--
Love only keeps alive its pure desires;
To cherish Grace, and twine the golden chain,
Uniting Minds, and making one of twain--
While moral Virtues link the mass, immense,
Inspiring courtesy, and confidence--
To shape the parts, and keep the polish pure,
Connecting each, and holding all secure.
This grows, alone, on consecrated ground!
In such a soil, in such inclement sky,
Mildews, and blights, both leaves, and blooms, destroy!
Pride's caterpillars eat its infant fruits--
Lust's canker-worms corrode its feeble roots--
The fires of Passion, or the frosts of Sloth,
If ever planted, still impede its growth--
Like damps, or droughts, destroy its tender head,
Or tempests tear it from its barren bed:
Religion can, alone, light up its fires--
Love only keeps alive its pure desires;
To cherish Grace, and twine the golden chain,
Uniting Minds, and making one of twain--
While moral Virtues link the mass, immense,
Inspiring courtesy, and confidence--
To shape the parts, and keep the polish pure,
Connecting each, and holding all secure.
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry); found again "mind" and "chains"
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
05/27/2005
Date of Review
05/26/2011
