"Each step you take, hales me a step more near / To the cold Grave: (nor is't an idle Fear) / For know, my Soul to you is chained fast, / And if you make such cruel, fatal hast, / Must quit it's Seat, and be so far unkind, / To leave my fainting, breathless Trunk behind."
— Ephelia (fl. 1679-1682)
Author
Place of Publication
Printed for James Courtney
Publisher
London
Date
1682
Metaphor
"Each step you take, hales me a step more near / To the cold Grave: (nor is't an idle Fear) / For know, my Soul to you is chained fast, / And if you make such cruel, fatal hast, / Must quit it's Seat, and be so far unkind, / To leave my fainting, breathless Trunk behind."
Metaphor in Context
Stay lovely Youth! do not so swiftly fly
From her your Speed must cause as quick to die:
Each step you take, hales me a step more near
To the cold Grave: (nor is't an idle Fear)
For know, my Soul to you is chained fast,
And if you make such cruel, fatal hast,
Must quit it's Seat, and be so far unkind,
To leave my fainting, breathless Trunk behind:
Your Sight unthought of, did so much surprise,
You might have seen my Soul danc'd in my Eyes;
But the cold Look you gave in passing by,
Froze my warm Blood, and taught my Hopes to die:
When you were past, my Spirits soon did fail,
My Limbs grew stiff and cold, my Face grew pale:
My Heart did Pant, scarce cou'd I fetch my Breath,
In every part nothing appear'd but Death:
Yet did my Eyes persue your cruel Flight,
Nor ever mov'd, 'till you were out of Sight:
But then, alas, it cannot be exprest,
I faint, I faint, my Death shall tell the rest.
From her your Speed must cause as quick to die:
Each step you take, hales me a step more near
To the cold Grave: (nor is't an idle Fear)
For know, my Soul to you is chained fast,
And if you make such cruel, fatal hast,
Must quit it's Seat, and be so far unkind,
To leave my fainting, breathless Trunk behind:
Your Sight unthought of, did so much surprise,
You might have seen my Soul danc'd in my Eyes;
But the cold Look you gave in passing by,
Froze my warm Blood, and taught my Hopes to die:
When you were past, my Spirits soon did fail,
My Limbs grew stiff and cold, my Face grew pale:
My Heart did Pant, scarce cou'd I fetch my Breath,
In every part nothing appear'd but Death:
Yet did my Eyes persue your cruel Flight,
Nor ever mov'd, 'till you were out of Sight:
But then, alas, it cannot be exprest,
I faint, I faint, my Death shall tell the rest.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "chain" and "soul" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Text from Female Poems On Several Occasions. Written by Ephelia 2nd ed. (London: James Courtney, 1682).
See also Poems by Ephelia (c. 1697): The Premier Facsimile Edition of the Collected Manuscript & Published Poems, ed. Maureen Esther Mulvhihill (Delmar, NY: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1992).
See also Poems by Ephelia (c. 1697): The Premier Facsimile Edition of the Collected Manuscript & Published Poems, ed. Maureen Esther Mulvhihill (Delmar, NY: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1992).
Date of Entry
01/11/2012
