The Grace teaches "When to check the sportive Vein; / When to Fancy give the Rein."
— Langhorne, John (1735-1779)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
Lincoln
Publisher
Printed by W. Wood
Date
1760?
Metaphor
The Grace teaches "When to check the sportive Vein; / When to Fancy give the Rein."
Metaphor in Context
The Grace, delighted, taught her Care
The Cordial Smile, the placid Air;
How to chase, and how restrain
All the fleet ideal Train;
How with apt Words well combin'd
To form each Image of the Mind--
Taught Her how They disagree,
Aukward Fear, and Modesty,
And Freedom, and Rusticity.
True Politeness how to know,
From the superficial Shew;
From the Coxcomb's shallow Grace,
And the many-modell'd Face:
That Nature's unaffected Ease
More than studied Forms wou'd please:
When to check the sportive Vein;
When to Fancy give the Rein.
On the Subject when to be
Grave or gay, reserv'd or free:
The speaking Air, th' impassion'd Eye,
The living Soul of Symmetry;
And that soft Sympathy that binds
In magic Chains congenial Minds.
The Cordial Smile, the placid Air;
How to chase, and how restrain
All the fleet ideal Train;
How with apt Words well combin'd
To form each Image of the Mind--
Taught Her how They disagree,
Aukward Fear, and Modesty,
And Freedom, and Rusticity.
True Politeness how to know,
From the superficial Shew;
From the Coxcomb's shallow Grace,
And the many-modell'd Face:
That Nature's unaffected Ease
More than studied Forms wou'd please:
When to check the sportive Vein;
When to Fancy give the Rein.
On the Subject when to be
Grave or gay, reserv'd or free:
The speaking Air, th' impassion'd Eye,
The living Soul of Symmetry;
And that soft Sympathy that binds
In magic Chains congenial Minds.
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
John Langhorne, Poems on Several Occasions (Lincoln: Printed by W. Wood, For R. Griffiths, [1760]).
Date of Entry
07/15/2011
