"Still heavy, at the last my Nose / I prim'd with an inspiring Dose, / Then did the Ideas dance, (dear safe us!) / As they'd been daft."
— Ramsay, Allan (1684-1758)
Author
Date
January, 1719; 1720
Metaphor
"Still heavy, at the last my Nose / I prim'd with an inspiring Dose, / Then did the Ideas dance, (dear safe us!) / As they'd been daft."
Metaphor in Context
Thus I (no longer to illustrate
With Similies, lest I should frustrate
Design Laconick of a Letter,
With Heap of Language and no Matter,)
Bang'd up my blyth auld-fashion'd Whistle,
To sowf ye o'er a short Epistle,
Without Rule, Compasses, or Charcoal,
Or serious Study in a dark Hole.
Three Times I ga'e the Muse a Rug,
Then bate my Nails and claw'd my Lug;
Still heavy, at the last my Nose
I prim'd with an inspiring Dose,
Then did the Ideas dance, (dear safe us!)
As they'd been daft.--Here ends the Preface.
With Similies, lest I should frustrate
Design Laconick of a Letter,
With Heap of Language and no Matter,)
Bang'd up my blyth auld-fashion'd Whistle,
To sowf ye o'er a short Epistle,
Without Rule, Compasses, or Charcoal,
Or serious Study in a dark Hole.
Three Times I ga'e the Muse a Rug,
Then bate my Nails and claw'd my Lug;
Still heavy, at the last my Nose
I prim'd with an inspiring Dose,
Then did the Ideas dance, (dear safe us!)
As they'd been daft.--Here ends the Preface.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "dance" and "idea" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Poem dated January 1719. At least 17 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1720, 1721, 1723, 1724, 1727, 1731, 1733, 1751, 1760, 1761, 1770, 1776, 1780, 1793, 1794, 1797, 1800).
See Poems. By Allan Ramsay. (Edinburgh: Printed for the author at the Mercury, opposite to Niddry’s-Wynd, 1720). <Link to ESTC>
Found also, in ECCO, in Miscellaneous Works of that Celebrated Scotch Poet. Allan Ramsay (1724), Poems by Allan Ramsay (1720, 1721, 1723, 1727, 1731, 1733, 1751, 1760, 1761, 1770, 1797, 1800), and Poems on Several Occasions (1776, 1780, 1793, 1794).
Text from The Works of Allan Ramsay, eds. Burns Martin and John W. Oliver, et. al (London and Edinburgh: Printed by William Blackwood & Sons, 1944-1973).
See Poems. By Allan Ramsay. (Edinburgh: Printed for the author at the Mercury, opposite to Niddry’s-Wynd, 1720). <Link to ESTC>
Found also, in ECCO, in Miscellaneous Works of that Celebrated Scotch Poet. Allan Ramsay (1724), Poems by Allan Ramsay (1720, 1721, 1723, 1727, 1731, 1733, 1751, 1760, 1761, 1770, 1797, 1800), and Poems on Several Occasions (1776, 1780, 1793, 1794).
Text from The Works of Allan Ramsay, eds. Burns Martin and John W. Oliver, et. al (London and Edinburgh: Printed by William Blackwood & Sons, 1944-1973).
Date of Entry
01/19/2012
