"Unhappy Sex! Whose easie yielding Temper / Gives Way to every Appetite alike; / Each gust of Inclination, uncontroul'd, / Sweeps thro' their Souls, and sets 'em in an uproar; / Each Motion of their Heart rises to Fury, / And Love in their weak Bosoms is a Rage / As terrible as Hate, and as destructive. / So the Wind roars o'er the wide fenceless Ocean, / And heaves the Billows of the boiling Deep, / Alike from North, from South, from East, and West ; / With equal Force the Tempest blows by turns / From every Corner of the Seaman's Compass."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for Bernard Lintott
Date
1714
Metaphor
"Unhappy Sex! Whose easie yielding Temper / Gives Way to every Appetite alike; / Each gust of Inclination, uncontroul'd, / Sweeps thro' their Souls, and sets 'em in an uproar; / Each Motion of their Heart rises to Fury, / And Love in their weak Bosoms is a Rage / As terrible as Hate, and as destructive. / So the Wind roars o'er the wide fenceless Ocean, / And heaves the Billows of the boiling Deep, / Alike from North, from South, from East, and West ; / With equal Force the Tempest blows by turns / From every Corner of the Seaman's Compass."
Metaphor in Context
LORD HASTINGS
How fierce a Fiend is Passion? With what Wildness,
What Tyranny untam'd, it Reigns in Woman.
Unhappy Sex! Whose easie yielding Temper
Gives Way to every Appetite alike;
Each gust of Inclination, uncontroul'd,
Sweeps thro' their Souls, and sets 'em in an uproar;
Each Motion of their Heart rises to Fury,
And Love in their weak Bosoms is a Rage
As terrible as Hate, and as destructive.
So the Wind roars o'er the wide fenceless Ocean,
And heaves the Billows of the boiling Deep,
Alike from North, from South, from East, and West ;
With equal Force the Tempest blows by turns
From every Corner of the Seaman's Compass.

But soft ye now--for here comes one, disclaims
Strife, and her wrangling Train. Of equal Elements,
Without one jarring Atom was she form'd
And Gentleness, and Joy, make up her Being.
(II.i, pp. 17-18)
Provenance
C-H Lion
Citation
Over seventy entries in the ESTC (1714, 1719, 1720, 1723, 1726, 1728, 1731, 1733, 1735, 1736, 1740, 1746, 1748, 1751, 1752, 1754, 1755, 1756, 1758, 1760, 1761, 1764, 1765, 1767, 1768, 1770, 1772, 1773, 1774, 1780, 1783, 1784, 1785, 1786, 1787, 1790, 1791).

See The Tragedy of Jane Shore. Written in Imitation of Shakespear's Style. By N. Rowe (London: Printed for Bernard Lintott, 1714).
Date of Entry
07/20/2013

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.