"'So vain his wishes, and so weak his mind, / 'His soul, a bright obscurity at best, / 'And rough with tempests his afflicted breast, / 'His life, a flower ere evening sure to fade, / 'His highest joys, the shadow of a shade."
— Jones, Sir William (1746-1794)
Date
1772, 1810
Metaphor
"'So vain his wishes, and so weak his mind, / 'His soul, a bright obscurity at best, / 'And rough with tempests his afflicted breast, / 'His life, a flower ere evening sure to fade, / 'His highest joys, the shadow of a shade."
Metaphor in Context
'Knew all his powers, and all his passions trac'd,
'What virtue rais'd him, and what vice debas'd:
'But when I saw his knowledge so confin'd,
'So vain his wishes, and so weak his mind,
'His soul, a bright obscurity at best,
'And rough with tempests his afflicted breast,
'His life, a flower ere evening sure to fade,
'His highest joys, the shadow of a shade;
'To thy fair court I took my weary way,
'Bewail my folly, and heaven's laws obey,
'Confess my feeble mind for prayers unfit,
'And to my Maker's will my soul submit:
'Great empress of yon orb that rolls below,
'On me the last best gift of heaven bestow.'
(II, p. 160, ll. 343-356)
'What virtue rais'd him, and what vice debas'd:
'But when I saw his knowledge so confin'd,
'So vain his wishes, and so weak his mind,
'His soul, a bright obscurity at best,
'And rough with tempests his afflicted breast,
'His life, a flower ere evening sure to fade,
'His highest joys, the shadow of a shade;
'To thy fair court I took my weary way,
'Bewail my folly, and heaven's laws obey,
'Confess my feeble mind for prayers unfit,
'And to my Maker's will my soul submit:
'Great empress of yon orb that rolls below,
'On me the last best gift of heaven bestow.'
(II, p. 160, ll. 343-356)
Categories
Provenance
LION
Citation
Written in 1769. 3 entries for Poems in ESTC (1772, 1774, 1777).
Text from The Poetical Works of William Jones. With the Life of the author, 2 vols. (London: Printed for J. Nichols and Son; R. Baldwin, 1810).
See also Poems: Consisting Chiefly of Translations from the Asiatick Languages (Altenbrugh: Gottlob Emanuel Richter, 1774).<Link to Google Books>
Text from The Poetical Works of William Jones. With the Life of the author, 2 vols. (London: Printed for J. Nichols and Son; R. Baldwin, 1810).
See also Poems: Consisting Chiefly of Translations from the Asiatick Languages (Altenbrugh: Gottlob Emanuel Richter, 1774).<Link to Google Books>
Date of Entry
10/13/2013
