"Those hidden bonds are twined about the heart, / So that the captive wanders unconfined, / And has no sovereign but o'er his mind!"
— Betham, Matilda (1776-1852)
Author
Work Title
Date
1905
Metaphor
"Those hidden bonds are twined about the heart, / So that the captive wanders unconfined, / And has no sovereign but o'er his mind!"
Metaphor in Context
Let them, in bondage, fancy themselves free;
And while fast fettered, vaunt their liberty!
Because they do not massy chains behold,
Suppose they are monarchs uncontrolled!
How vain! to hope 'twould be to them revealed
The flame burns strongest that is most concealed!
Then with what potent, what resistless art,
Those hidden bonds are twined about the heart,
So that the captive wanders unconfined,
And has no sovereign but o'er his mind!
The prize is mutual, either power of fame;
We have the substance, they keep the name!
(ll. 21-32, pp. 502-3)
And while fast fettered, vaunt their liberty!
Because they do not massy chains behold,
Suppose they are monarchs uncontrolled!
How vain! to hope 'twould be to them revealed
The flame burns strongest that is most concealed!
Then with what potent, what resistless art,
Those hidden bonds are twined about the heart,
So that the captive wanders unconfined,
And has no sovereign but o'er his mind!
The prize is mutual, either power of fame;
We have the substance, they keep the name!
(ll. 21-32, pp. 502-3)
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Lonsdale, R. Ed. Eighteenth Century Women Poets. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Date of Entry
07/29/2003
Date of Review
06/26/2011
