"When the sharp iron wounds his inmost soul, / And his strain'd eyes in burning anguish roll; / Will the parch'd negro find, ere he expire, / No pain in hunger, and no heat in fire?"
— More, Hannah (1745-1833)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
T. Cadell
Date
1788
Metaphor
"When the sharp iron wounds his inmost soul, / And his strain'd eyes in burning anguish roll; / Will the parch'd negro find, ere he expire, / No pain in hunger, and no heat in fire?"
Metaphor in Context
When the fierce Sun darts vertical his beams,
And thirst and hunger mix their wild extremes;
When the sharp iron * wounds his inmost soul,
And his strain'd eyes in burning anguish roll;
Will the parch'd negro find, ere he expire,
No pain in hunger, and no heat in fire?
[...]
* This is not said figuratively. The writer of these lines has seen a complete set of chains, fitted to every separate limb of these unhappy, innocent men; together with instruments for wrenching open the jaws, contrived with such ingenious cruelty as would shock the humanity of an inquisitor.
(ll. 171-6, p. 13, p. 106 in Wood)
And thirst and hunger mix their wild extremes;
When the sharp iron * wounds his inmost soul,
And his strain'd eyes in burning anguish roll;
Will the parch'd negro find, ere he expire,
No pain in hunger, and no heat in fire?
[...]
* This is not said figuratively. The writer of these lines has seen a complete set of chains, fitted to every separate limb of these unhappy, innocent men; together with instruments for wrenching open the jaws, contrived with such ingenious cruelty as would shock the humanity of an inquisitor.
(ll. 171-6, p. 13, p. 106 in Wood)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
3 entries in ESTC (1788). Text from Brycchan Carey's electronic edition <Link>
See also Slavery, a Poem. By Hannah More (London: T. Cadell, 1788). <Link to ECCO>.
Collected in Marcus Wood's The Poetry of Slavery (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003). Excerpted in Roger Lonsdale's Eighteenth Century Women Poets (Oxford UP, 1989).
See also Slavery, a Poem. By Hannah More (London: T. Cadell, 1788). <Link to ECCO>.
Collected in Marcus Wood's The Poetry of Slavery (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003). Excerpted in Roger Lonsdale's Eighteenth Century Women Poets (Oxford UP, 1989).
Theme
Meta-Metaphorical
Date of Entry
08/14/2012
