"Too fatal proof! since thou, with av'rice fraught, / Didst basely urge (ah! shun the wounding thought!) / That tender circumstance--reveal it not, / Lest torn with rage I curse my fated lot: / Lest startled Reason abdicate her reign, / And Madness revel in this heated brain."
— Jerningham, Edward (1727-1812)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for J. Dodsley
Date
1766, 1806
Metaphor
"Too fatal proof! since thou, with av'rice fraught, / Didst basely urge (ah! shun the wounding thought!) / That tender circumstance--reveal it not, / Lest torn with rage I curse my fated lot: / Lest startled Reason abdicate her reign, / And Madness revel in this heated brain."
Metaphor in Context
But thou, fair stranger, cam'st with gentler mind
To shun the perils of the wrecking wind.
Amidst thy foes thy safety still I plan'd,
And reach'd for galling chains the myrtle band:
Nor then unconscious of the secret fire,
Each heart voluptuous throb'd with soft desire:
Ah pleasing youth, kind object of my care,
Companion, friend, and ev'ry name that's dear!
Say, from thy mind canst thou so soon remove
The records pencil'd by the hand of love?
How as we wanton'd on the flow'ry ground
The loose-rob'd Pleasures danc'd unblam'd around:
Till to the sight the growing burden prov'd,
How thou o'ercam'st—and how, alas! I lov'd!
Too fatal proof! since thou, with av'rice fraught,
Didst basely urge (ah! shun the wounding thought!)
That tender circumstance—reveal it not,
Lest torn with rage I curse my fated lot:
Lest startled Reason abdicate her reign,
And Madness revel in this heated brain:
That tender circumstance—inhuman part—
I will not weep, tho' serpents gnaw this heart:
Frail, frail resolve! while gushing from mine eye
The pearly drops these boastful words belie.
Alas! can sorrow in this bosom sleep,
Where strikes ingratitude her talons deep?
When he I still adore, to nature dead,
For roses plants with thorns the nuptial bed?
Bids from the widow'd couch kind Peace remove,
And cold Indiff'rence blast the bow'r of Love?
What time his guardian pow'r I most requir'd,
Against my fame and happiness conspir'd!
(pp. 80-1, cf. pp. 11-13 in 1766 ed.)
To shun the perils of the wrecking wind.
Amidst thy foes thy safety still I plan'd,
And reach'd for galling chains the myrtle band:
Nor then unconscious of the secret fire,
Each heart voluptuous throb'd with soft desire:
Ah pleasing youth, kind object of my care,
Companion, friend, and ev'ry name that's dear!
Say, from thy mind canst thou so soon remove
The records pencil'd by the hand of love?
How as we wanton'd on the flow'ry ground
The loose-rob'd Pleasures danc'd unblam'd around:
Till to the sight the growing burden prov'd,
How thou o'ercam'st—and how, alas! I lov'd!
Too fatal proof! since thou, with av'rice fraught,
Didst basely urge (ah! shun the wounding thought!)
That tender circumstance—reveal it not,
Lest torn with rage I curse my fated lot:
Lest startled Reason abdicate her reign,
And Madness revel in this heated brain:
That tender circumstance—inhuman part—
I will not weep, tho' serpents gnaw this heart:
Frail, frail resolve! while gushing from mine eye
The pearly drops these boastful words belie.
Alas! can sorrow in this bosom sleep,
Where strikes ingratitude her talons deep?
When he I still adore, to nature dead,
For roses plants with thorns the nuptial bed?
Bids from the widow'd couch kind Peace remove,
And cold Indiff'rence blast the bow'r of Love?
What time his guardian pow'r I most requir'd,
Against my fame and happiness conspir'd!
(pp. 80-1, cf. pp. 11-13 in 1766 ed.)
Categories
Provenance
Searching in ECCO-TCP
Citation
At least 7 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1766, 1767, 1774, 1776, 1778, 1786, 1796).
Yarico to Inkle, An Epistle. By the Author of the Elegy Written Among the Ruins of an Abbey. (London: Printed for J. Dodsley, in Pall-Mall, 1766). <Link to ESTC>
Text from Poems on Various Subjects: Viz. the Nunnery, the Magdalens, the Nun, Ruins of an Abbey, Yarico to Inkle, Il Latte, Fugitive Pieces. By Mr. Jerningham. (London: Printed for J. Robson, 1767). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Originally searching in Poems and Plays, by Mr. Jerningham. 4 vols. 9th Edition. (London: Printed by Luke Hansard for Nornaville and Fell, 1806).
Yarico to Inkle, An Epistle. By the Author of the Elegy Written Among the Ruins of an Abbey. (London: Printed for J. Dodsley, in Pall-Mall, 1766). <Link to ESTC>
Text from Poems on Various Subjects: Viz. the Nunnery, the Magdalens, the Nun, Ruins of an Abbey, Yarico to Inkle, Il Latte, Fugitive Pieces. By Mr. Jerningham. (London: Printed for J. Robson, 1767). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Originally searching in Poems and Plays, by Mr. Jerningham. 4 vols. 9th Edition. (London: Printed by Luke Hansard for Nornaville and Fell, 1806).
Date of Entry
03/13/2014
