"Love is a passion, by no rules confin'd, / The great first mover of the human mind"
— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Date
1726, 1753
Metaphor
"Love is a passion, by no rules confin'd, / The great first mover of the human mind"
Metaphor in Context
Love is a passion, by no rules confin'd,
The great first mover of the human mind:
Spring of our fate! it lifts the climbing will,
Or sinks the soften'd soul, in seas of ill:
Science, truth, virtue, sweetness, glory, grace,
All are love's influence, and adorn his race;
Love, too, gives fear, despair, grief, anger, strife,
And all th' unnumber'd woes, which tempest life,
Fir'd with a daring wish, to paint him right,
What muse shall I invoke to lend me light?
Something divine there lives in love's soft flame,
Beyond our spirit's pow'r, to give it name!
How shall I paint it, then? or why reveal
A pleasure, and a pain, which all must feel?
(p. 200; cf. pp. 193-4 in 1726 miscellany)
The great first mover of the human mind:
Spring of our fate! it lifts the climbing will,
Or sinks the soften'd soul, in seas of ill:
Science, truth, virtue, sweetness, glory, grace,
All are love's influence, and adorn his race;
Love, too, gives fear, despair, grief, anger, strife,
And all th' unnumber'd woes, which tempest life,
Fir'd with a daring wish, to paint him right,
What muse shall I invoke to lend me light?
Something divine there lives in love's soft flame,
Beyond our spirit's pow'r, to give it name!
How shall I paint it, then? or why reveal
A pleasure, and a pain, which all must feel?
(p. 200; cf. pp. 193-4 in 1726 miscellany)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
At least 4 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1726, 1753, 1754).
See Miscellaneous Poems and Translations. By Several Hands. Publish’d by Richard Savage, Son of the Late Earl Rivers. (London: Printed for Samuel Chapman, at the Angel in Pall-Mall, 1726). <Link to ESTC>
Text from The Works of the Late Aaron Hill, Esq; in Four Volumes. Consisting of Letters on Various Subjects, and of Original Poems, Moral and Facetious. With an Essay on the Art of Acting. (London: Printed for the benefit of the family, 1753). <Link to ESTC>
See Miscellaneous Poems and Translations. By Several Hands. Publish’d by Richard Savage, Son of the Late Earl Rivers. (London: Printed for Samuel Chapman, at the Angel in Pall-Mall, 1726). <Link to ESTC>
Text from The Works of the Late Aaron Hill, Esq; in Four Volumes. Consisting of Letters on Various Subjects, and of Original Poems, Moral and Facetious. With an Essay on the Art of Acting. (London: Printed for the benefit of the family, 1753). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
06/11/2014
