"Should you presumptuous, quit your safer Ground, / And seek the utmost Lines, which Vertue bound, / And on the Frontier to engage the Foe, With Reason 's weak collected Forces go, / You'll soon those nice, ill-guarded Limits pass, / Throw down your Arms, and fond her Feet embrace, / In her soft Snares her Pris'ner she'll detain, / And will you then have Pow'r to break her Chain?"
— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by W. Wilkins for Jonas Browne ... and J. Walthoe [etc.]
Date
1718
Metaphor
"Should you presumptuous, quit your safer Ground, / And seek the utmost Lines, which Vertue bound, / And on the Frontier to engage the Foe,
With Reason 's weak collected Forces go, / You'll soon those nice, ill-guarded Limits pass, / Throw down your Arms, and fond her Feet embrace, / In her soft Snares her Pris'ner she'll detain, / And will you then have Pow'r to break her Chain?"
Metaphor in Context
Should you presumptuous, quit your safer Ground,
And seek the utmost Lines, which Vertue bound,
And on the Frontier to engage the Foe,
With Reason 's weak collected Forces go,
You'll soon those nice, ill-guarded Limits pass,
Throw down your Arms, and fond her Feet embrace,
In her soft Snares her Pris'ner she'll detain,
And will you then have Pow'r to break her Chain?
And seek the utmost Lines, which Vertue bound,
And on the Frontier to engage the Foe,
With Reason 's weak collected Forces go,
You'll soon those nice, ill-guarded Limits pass,
Throw down your Arms, and fond her Feet embrace,
In her soft Snares her Pris'ner she'll detain,
And will you then have Pow'r to break her Chain?
Provenance
Searching "reason" and "frontier" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Only 1 entry in ESTC and ECCO (1718).
Richard Blackmore, A Collection of Poems on Various Subjects. By Sir Richard Blackmore, Kt. M. D. Fellow of the Royal-College of Physicians. (London: Printed by W. Wilkins, for Jonas Browne and J. Walthoe, 1718). <Link to ECCO>
Richard Blackmore, A Collection of Poems on Various Subjects. By Sir Richard Blackmore, Kt. M. D. Fellow of the Royal-College of Physicians. (London: Printed by W. Wilkins, for Jonas Browne and J. Walthoe, 1718). <Link to ECCO>
Theme
Psychomachia
Date of Entry
05/20/2010
Date of Review
06/26/2011
