"Why drive him from my presence? he might now / Raise my sunk soul, and my benighted mind / Enlighten with religion's cheering ray."
— More, Hannah (1745-1833)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for T. Cadell
Date
1782
Metaphor
"Why drive him from my presence? he might now / Raise my sunk soul, and my benighted mind / Enlighten with religion's cheering ray."
Metaphor in Context
"Why drive him from my presence? he might now / Raise my sunk soul, and my benighted mind / Enlighten with religion's cheering ray."
SAUL, rising from his couch.
OH! that I knew the black and midnight arts
Of wizard sorcery! that I cou'd call
The slumb'ring spirit from the shades of hell!
Or, like Chaldean sages, cou'd foreknow
Th' event of things unacted! I might then
Anticipate my fortune. How I'm fall'n!
The sport of vain chimeras, the weak slave
Of fear, and sickly fancy; coveting
To know the arts which foul diviners use.
Thick blood, and moping melancholy, lead
To baleful Superstition, that fell fiend
Whose with'ring charms blast the fair bloom of virtue.
Why did my wounded pride with scorn reject
The wholesome truths which holy Samuel told me?
Why drive him from my presence? he might now
Raise my sunk soul, and my benighted mind
Enlighten with religion's cheering ray.
He dared to menace me with loss of empire,
And I, for that bold honesty, dismiss'd him.
"Another shall possess thy throne, he cry'd,
"A stranger!" This unwelcome prophecy
Has lin'd my crown, and strew'd my couch with thorns.
Each ray of op'ning merit I discern
In friend or foe, distracts my troubled soul,
Lest he shou'd prove my rival. But this morn,
Ev'n my young champion, lovely as he look'd
in blooming valour, struck me to the soul
With jealousy's barb'd dart. O jealousy!
Thou ugliest fiend of hell! thy deadly venom
Preys on my vitals, turns the healthful hue
Of my fresh cheek to haggard sallowness;
And drinks my spirit up!
(Part V, pp. 111-3)
Categories
Provenance
Searching in ECCO-TCP
Citation
16 entries in the ESTC (1782, 1783, 1784, 1785, 1786, 1787, 1789, 1791, 1793, 1796, 1798, 1799, 1800).
See Hannah More, Sacred Dramas: Chiefly Intended for Young Persons: the Subjects Taken from the Bible. To which is Added, Sensibility, a Poem. (London: Printed for T. Cadell, 1782.) <Link to ECCO-TCP>
See Hannah More, Sacred Dramas: Chiefly Intended for Young Persons: the Subjects Taken from the Bible. To which is Added, Sensibility, a Poem. (London: Printed for T. Cadell, 1782.) <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Date of Entry
08/16/2013
