"Yet still in fancy's painted cells / The soul-inflaming image dwells."
— Hamilton, William, of Bangour (1704-1754)
Date
1760, 1850
Metaphor
"Yet still in fancy's painted cells / The soul-inflaming image dwells."
Metaphor in Context
Monimia still! here once again!
O fatal name! O dubious strain!
Say, heaven-born virtue, power divine,
Are all these various movements thine?
Was it thy triumphs, sole inspired
My soul, to holy transports fired?
Or say, do springs less sacred move?
Ah! much, I fear, 'tis human love.
Alas! the noble strife is o'er,
The blissful visions charm no more;
Far off the glorious rapture flown,
Monimia rages here alone.
In vain, love's fugitive, I try
From the commanding power to fly;
Though grace was dawning on my soul,
Possessed by heaven sincere and whole,
Yet still in fancy's painted cells
The soul-inflaming image dwells.
Why didst thou, cruel love, again
Thus drag me back to earth and pain?
Well hoped I, love, thou would'st retire
Before the blest Jessean lyre.
Devotion's harp would charm to rest
The evil spirit in my breast;
But the deaf adder fell disdains,
Unlist'ning to the chanter's strains.
O fatal name! O dubious strain!
Say, heaven-born virtue, power divine,
Are all these various movements thine?
Was it thy triumphs, sole inspired
My soul, to holy transports fired?
Or say, do springs less sacred move?
Ah! much, I fear, 'tis human love.
Alas! the noble strife is o'er,
The blissful visions charm no more;
Far off the glorious rapture flown,
Monimia rages here alone.
In vain, love's fugitive, I try
From the commanding power to fly;
Though grace was dawning on my soul,
Possessed by heaven sincere and whole,
Yet still in fancy's painted cells
The soul-inflaming image dwells.
Why didst thou, cruel love, again
Thus drag me back to earth and pain?
Well hoped I, love, thou would'st retire
Before the blest Jessean lyre.
Devotion's harp would charm to rest
The evil spirit in my breast;
But the deaf adder fell disdains,
Unlist'ning to the chanter's strains.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "soul" and "cell" in HDIS (Poetry); found again "fancy"
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
08/17/2005
