"What strange astonishment such Fools must feel / When told her Heart was hard as temper'd steel;"

— Woodhouse, James (bap. 1735, d. 1820)


Date
1814, 1816, 1896
Metaphor
"What strange astonishment such Fools must feel / When told her Heart was hard as temper'd steel;"
Metaphor in Context
What strange astonishment such Fools must feel
When told her Heart was hard as temper'd steel;

Or that her artificial shine, when shown,
Was but the splendour of a polish'd stone--
That all her Virtues were but Vizors, bright,
To keep her carnal sentiments from sight;
And all her Charities but cheats to hide
Unbounded Vanities--Caprice--and Pride!
Provenance
Searching "heart" and "steel" 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>
Date of Entry
06/12/2005

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.