One may hope "to find / An easy conquest o'er a woman's mind"
— Hamilton, William, of Bangour (1704-1754)
Work Title
Date
1760, 1850
Metaphor
One may hope "to find / An easy conquest o'er a woman's mind"
Metaphor in Context
I love, nor longer will conceal
A flame which truth and honour bid reveal:
Nor duty further binds my tongue, since here
I now no rival but a brother fear.
Nor is this flame the passion of a day,
A sudden blaze that hastens to decay;
Long in my breast I pent the rising groan,
Told it in secret to my heart alone.
O, could I, faithful to its rage, express
Its first uneasiness, my last distress!
But lose not now the moments to disclose
The long, long story of my amorous woes.--
Suffice it thee to know, that ere my sire
Beheld this beauteous object of desire,
I saw and felt the charmer in my heart,
And holy passion dignified the dart.
My father saw her too, nor sought to move
With vows that she and virtue could approve;
Haughty of sovereign rule, he hoped to find
An easy conquest o'er a woman's mind:
But when he found, in honour resolute,
She scorned indignant his imperious suit,
'Twas then he sent, in Hymen's sacred name,
His diadem, the pledge of purer flame.
Judge then, my friend! what agonizing smart
Tore up my senses, and transfixed my heart,
When first from fame the dreadful tale I heard,
The fair Monimia to his throne preferred,
And that Arbates with his beauteous prey
Shaped for Nymphea's walls the destined way.
A flame which truth and honour bid reveal:
Nor duty further binds my tongue, since here
I now no rival but a brother fear.
Nor is this flame the passion of a day,
A sudden blaze that hastens to decay;
Long in my breast I pent the rising groan,
Told it in secret to my heart alone.
O, could I, faithful to its rage, express
Its first uneasiness, my last distress!
But lose not now the moments to disclose
The long, long story of my amorous woes.--
Suffice it thee to know, that ere my sire
Beheld this beauteous object of desire,
I saw and felt the charmer in my heart,
And holy passion dignified the dart.
My father saw her too, nor sought to move
With vows that she and virtue could approve;
Haughty of sovereign rule, he hoped to find
An easy conquest o'er a woman's mind:
But when he found, in honour resolute,
She scorned indignant his imperious suit,
'Twas then he sent, in Hymen's sacred name,
His diadem, the pledge of purer flame.
Judge then, my friend! what agonizing smart
Tore up my senses, and transfixed my heart,
When first from fame the dreadful tale I heard,
The fair Monimia to his throne preferred,
And that Arbates with his beauteous prey
Shaped for Nymphea's walls the destined way.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "conque" and "mind" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
At least 2 entries in ESTC (1760).
See Poems on Several Occasions. By William Hamilton of Bangour, Esquire. (Edinburgh: Printed for W. Gordon Bookseller in the Parliament Close, 1760). <Link to ECCO>
Text from The Poems and Songs of William Hamilton of Bangour, ed. James Paterson (Edinburgh: Thomas George Stevenson, 1850).
See Poems on Several Occasions. By William Hamilton of Bangour, Esquire. (Edinburgh: Printed for W. Gordon Bookseller in the Parliament Close, 1760). <Link to ECCO>
Text from The Poems and Songs of William Hamilton of Bangour, ed. James Paterson (Edinburgh: Thomas George Stevenson, 1850).
Date of Entry
02/06/2005
