"On feeling hearts she [Mercy] sheds celestial dew, / And breathes her spirit o'er th' enlighten'd few; / From soul to soul the spreading influence steals, / Till every breast the soft contagion feels."
— More, Hannah (1745-1833)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
T. Cadell
Date
1788
Metaphor
"On feeling hearts she [Mercy] sheds celestial dew, / And breathes her spirit o'er th' enlighten'd few; / From soul to soul the spreading influence steals, / Till every breast the soft contagion feels."
Metaphor in Context
And see, the cherub Mercy from above,
Descending softly, quits the sphere of love!
On feeling hearts she sheds celestial dew,
And breathes her spirit o'er th' enlighten'd few;
From soul to soul the spreading influence steals,
Till every breast the soft contagion feels.
She bears, exulting, to the burning shore
The loveliest office Angel ever bore;
To vindicate the pow'r in Heaven ador'd,
To still the clank of chains, and sheathe the sword;
To cheer the mourner, and with soothing hands
From bursting hearts unbind th' Oppressor's bands;
To raise the lustre of the Christian name,
And clear the foulest blot that dims its fame.
(ll. 263-176, p. 109 in Wood)
Descending softly, quits the sphere of love!
On feeling hearts she sheds celestial dew,
And breathes her spirit o'er th' enlighten'd few;
From soul to soul the spreading influence steals,
Till every breast the soft contagion feels.
She bears, exulting, to the burning shore
The loveliest office Angel ever bore;
To vindicate the pow'r in Heaven ador'd,
To still the clank of chains, and sheathe the sword;
To cheer the mourner, and with soothing hands
From bursting hearts unbind th' Oppressor's bands;
To raise the lustre of the Christian name,
And clear the foulest blot that dims its fame.
(ll. 263-176, p. 109 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).
Date of Entry
08/14/2012
