"Those gifts for nobler purposes assign'd, / To raise the thoughts, and moralize the mind; / The chaste delights of virtues to inspire, / And warm the bosom with seraphic fire; / Sublime the passions, lend devotion wings, / And celebrate the first great cause of things."
— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)
Date
1739
Metaphor
"Those gifts for nobler purposes assign'd, / To raise the thoughts, and moralize the mind; / The chaste delights of virtues to inspire, / And warm the bosom with seraphic fire; / Sublime the passions, lend devotion wings, / And celebrate the first great cause of things."
Metaphor in Context
Oft' did Intrigue it's guilty arts unite,
To blacken the records of female wit:
The tuneful song lost ev'ry modest grace,
And lawless freedoms triumph'd in their place:
The Muse, for vices not her own accus'd,
With blushes view'd her sacred gifts abus'd;
Those gifts for nobler purposes assign'd,
To raise the thoughts, and moralize the mind;
The chaste delights of virtues to inspire,
And warm the bosom with seraphic fire;
Sublime the passions, lend devotion wings,
And celebrate the first great cause of things.
(ll. 1-12, p. 30)
To blacken the records of female wit:
The tuneful song lost ev'ry modest grace,
And lawless freedoms triumph'd in their place:
The Muse, for vices not her own accus'd,
With blushes view'd her sacred gifts abus'd;
Those gifts for nobler purposes assign'd,
To raise the thoughts, and moralize the mind;
The chaste delights of virtues to inspire,
And warm the bosom with seraphic fire;
Sublime the passions, lend devotion wings,
And celebrate the first great cause of things.
(ll. 1-12, p. 30)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Text from Women Writers Online: Elizabeth Carter, Memoirs of the Life of Mrs. Elizabeth Carter, with a New Edition of her Poems, Ed. Montagu Pennington, 2 vols. (London: F.C. and J. Rivington, 1816). <Link to WWO><Same edition in Internet Archive>
Date of Entry
06/23/2011
