"We've some of hotter, some of colder make, / And some whose drowsy passions never wake."

— Thompson, Edward (1738-1786)


Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Date
1765, 1770
Metaphor
"We've some of hotter, some of colder make, / And some whose drowsy passions never wake."
Metaphor in Context
Lust, the most social passion of the soul,
Sweet to indulge, but stubborn to controul;
A passion, which the god of nature gave
The free enjoyment of to king, to slave:
Which the polite, through strainers more refin'd,
Call gentle love, the joy of womankind.
Then love, or lust, (for call it which ye please)
Leads to one end---the happy road to ease:
Softest amusement which we all profess,
As constitution dictates, more, or less:
Unless it is the chaste Platonic mind,
Which courts without emotion womankind;
If such dull souls possess our duller youth,
It may be impotence, it can't be truth.
We've some of hotter, some of colder make,
And some whose drowsy passions never wake
,
Some ripe at fifteen, some at twenty two,
Nay, some at twelve are ripe and rotten too.
(ll. 195-212)
Provenance
Reading
Citation
4 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1765, 1770).

Text from The Court of Cupid. By the Author of the Meretriciad. Containing the Eighth Edition of the Meretriciad, with Great Additions. 2 vols. (London: Printed for C. Moran, 1770).

See also The Courtesan. By the Author of the Meretriciad. (London: Printed for J. Harrison, in Covent Garden, 1765). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
10/28/2013

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