"When love is fetter'd, all is fire, / And tender passion soon decays; / Like those sweet birds which soon expire, / When we wou'd force their tuneful lays."
— Whalley, Thomas Sedgwick (1746-1828)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
R. Baldwin and T. Becket
Date
1781
Metaphor
"When love is fetter'd, all is fire, / And tender passion soon decays; / Like those sweet birds which soon expire, / When we wou'd force their tuneful lays."
Metaphor in Context
"Can tender friendship, gentle love,
"E'er be displeasing in his sight,
"Who, by affection, links above
"The spirits of eternal light?
"Or, can the rites of wedlock prove,
"With ties unhallow'd, as unblest,
"A charm to bind, where ardent love
"Warms not with mutual flames the breast?
"When love is fetter'd, all is fire,
"And tender passion soon decays;
"Like those sweet birds which soon expire,
"When we wou'd force their tuneful lays:
"But free, from year to year, the grove
"Seems living with their melting song;
"So, generous, pure, and free-born love,
"When unconstrain'd, lives only long.--
"Be kind to all the sons of men,
"Nor fraud, nor violence employ,
"To give another's bosom pain,
"Or interrupt another's joy;
"Be courteous, humble, grateful, just,
"Be quick to wipe the eye of care;
"No vengeance seek, betray no trust,
"The wrong'd redress, the erring spare;
"This, be our creed, and if we live
"According to its golden rules,
"Need we against our reason strive,
"To win the praise of rigid fools?
(pp. 23-5)
"E'er be displeasing in his sight,
"Who, by affection, links above
"The spirits of eternal light?
"Or, can the rites of wedlock prove,
"With ties unhallow'd, as unblest,
"A charm to bind, where ardent love
"Warms not with mutual flames the breast?
"When love is fetter'd, all is fire,
"And tender passion soon decays;
"Like those sweet birds which soon expire,
"When we wou'd force their tuneful lays:
"But free, from year to year, the grove
"Seems living with their melting song;
"So, generous, pure, and free-born love,
"When unconstrain'd, lives only long.--
"Be kind to all the sons of men,
"Nor fraud, nor violence employ,
"To give another's bosom pain,
"Or interrupt another's joy;
"Be courteous, humble, grateful, just,
"Be quick to wipe the eye of care;
"No vengeance seek, betray no trust,
"The wrong'd redress, the erring spare;
"This, be our creed, and if we live
"According to its golden rules,
"Need we against our reason strive,
"To win the praise of rigid fools?
(pp. 23-5)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "bird" and "passion" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Thomas Sedgwick Whalley, The Fatal Kiss, a Poem. Written in the Last Stage of an Atrophy, by a Beautiful and Unfortunate Young Lady; The Singular and Melancholy Circumstances of Whose Life May, Perhaps, be One Day Offered the Publick, to the Confusion and Disgrace of one whose Fortune and Rank Would not have Power to Shield Him from the Censure and Detestation of Every One who has True Principles of Honour and Humanity (London: R. Baldwin and T. Becket, 1781). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
06/27/2012
