"We've some of hotter, some of colder make, / And some whose drowsy passions never wake."
— Thompson, Edward (1738-1786)
Author
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)
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)
Categories
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>
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