"Let clear-ey'd reason at the helm preside, / Bear to the wind, or stem the furious tide: / Then mirth may urge when reason can explore, / This point the way, that waft us to the shore."
— Brown, John (1715-1766)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for R. Dodsley
Date
1745
Metaphor
"Let clear-ey'd reason at the helm preside, / Bear to the wind, or stem the furious tide: / Then mirth may urge when reason can explore, / This point the way, that waft us to the shore."
Metaphor in Context
But you more wise, reject th' inverted rule,
That truth is e'er explor'd by ridicule:
On truth, on falsehood let her colours fall,
She throws a dazzling glare alike on all:
Beware the mad advent'rer: Bold and blind
She hoists her sail, and drives with ev'ry wind,
Deaf as the storm to sinking virtue's groan,
Nor heeds a friend's destruction, or her own.
Let clear-ey'd reason at the helm preside,
Bear to the wind, or stem the furious tide:
Then mirth may urge when reason can explore,
This point the way, that waft us to the shore.
(p. 17-8)
That truth is e'er explor'd by ridicule:
On truth, on falsehood let her colours fall,
She throws a dazzling glare alike on all:
Beware the mad advent'rer: Bold and blind
She hoists her sail, and drives with ev'ry wind,
Deaf as the storm to sinking virtue's groan,
Nor heeds a friend's destruction, or her own.
Let clear-ey'd reason at the helm preside,
Bear to the wind, or stem the furious tide:
Then mirth may urge when reason can explore,
This point the way, that waft us to the shore.
(p. 17-8)
Categories
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.
Date of Entry
08/23/2013
