"But SATIRE's arrow searches ev'ry breast: / She plays a ruling passion on the rest"
— Brown, John (1715-1766)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for R. Dodsley
Date
1745
Metaphor
"But SATIRE's arrow searches ev'ry breast: / She plays a ruling passion on the rest"
Metaphor in Context
Her hand from vice fair virtues oft hath sprung,
As the skill'd planter raises flow'rs from dung:
Weak are the ties which publick art can find,
To quell the madness of the tainted mind:
Cunning evades, securely wrapt in wiles;
And force strong-sinew'd rends th'unequal toils:
The stream of vice impetuous drives along,
Too deep for policy, for pow'r too strong:
Ev'n fair religion, native of the skies,
Scorn'd by the fool, seeks refuge with the wise:
But SATIRE's arrow searches ev'ry breast:
She plays a ruling passion on the rest:
Fast binds the slave that earth and heav'n defy'd,
And awes him from the battery of his pride.
When fell corruption, by her vassals crown'd,
Derides fall'n justice prostrate on the ground;
Swift to redress an injur'd people's groan,
Bold SATIRE shakes the tyrant on her throne;
Pow'rful as death, defies the sordid train,
And slaves and sycophants surround in vain.
But with the friends of vice, the foes of SATIRE,
All truth is spleen, all spirit is ill-nature.--
(pp. 11-2)
As the skill'd planter raises flow'rs from dung:
Weak are the ties which publick art can find,
To quell the madness of the tainted mind:
Cunning evades, securely wrapt in wiles;
And force strong-sinew'd rends th'unequal toils:
The stream of vice impetuous drives along,
Too deep for policy, for pow'r too strong:
Ev'n fair religion, native of the skies,
Scorn'd by the fool, seeks refuge with the wise:
But SATIRE's arrow searches ev'ry breast:
She plays a ruling passion on the rest:
Fast binds the slave that earth and heav'n defy'd,
And awes him from the battery of his pride.
When fell corruption, by her vassals crown'd,
Derides fall'n justice prostrate on the ground;
Swift to redress an injur'd people's groan,
Bold SATIRE shakes the tyrant on her throne;
Pow'rful as death, defies the sordid train,
And slaves and sycophants surround in vain.
But with the friends of vice, the foes of SATIRE,
All truth is spleen, all spirit is ill-nature.--
(pp. 11-2)
Provenance
Searching in ECCO-TCP
Citation
At least 3 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1745, 1748, 1749).
See An Essay on Satire: Occasion'd by the Death of Mr. Pope. (London: Printed for R. Dodsley, 1745). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Collected in Dodsley's Poems (1748), Vol. III, pp. 315-337.
See An Essay on Satire: Occasion'd by the Death of Mr. Pope. (London: Printed for R. Dodsley, 1745). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Collected in Dodsley's Poems (1748), Vol. III, pp. 315-337.
Theme
Ruling Passion
Date of Entry
08/23/2013
