"Behold, thro' fancy's mirrour, what a scene / The phantom opens, ample, wide, and fair, / Each golden minute, bearing as it flies / Imaginary raptures on its wing; / Flatt'ring my fond deluded heart with dreams / Of lasting pleasure--but alas, how soon / This fairy Eden to a waste is turn'd?"
— Hervey, James (1714-1758)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for J. Rivington and J. Fletcher
Date
1757
Metaphor
"Behold, thro' fancy's mirrour, what a scene / The phantom opens, ample, wide, and fair, / Each golden minute, bearing as it flies / Imaginary raptures on its wing; / Flatt'ring my fond deluded heart with dreams / Of lasting pleasure--but alas, how soon / This fairy Eden to a waste is turn'd?"
Metaphor in Context
Time now is fled--lost all its fleeting hours!
How short a stay the fugitive has made?
Just like some modish courtly dame, who pays
Her visit, takes her seat-- then bids adieu.
Behold, thro' fancy's mirrour, what a scene
The phantom opens, ample, wide, and fair,
Each golden minute, bearing as it flies
Imaginary raptures on its wing;
Flatt'ring my fond deluded heart with dreams
Of lasting pleasure--but alas, how soon
This fairy Eden to a waste is turn'd?
The distant landscape, spacious, ample, green,
Which sporting fancy drew, weigh'd in the scale
Of cool experience, shrinks and dies away.
Such to the mast-man's eye, his bark with seas
And skies surrounded, seems Britannia's shore;
Her cliffs now sink, now lessen, now are lost.
As from the rounded top on which he stands
He throws a last sad look, and bids adieu,
To her lov'd island, now an isle no more,
While mingling both, as farther he retires
The cloud and land are one--how clearly now
Do I discern the cheat of earthly joys
Delusive phantoms! vanish'd e'er enjoy'd;
(p. 24)
How short a stay the fugitive has made?
Just like some modish courtly dame, who pays
Her visit, takes her seat-- then bids adieu.
Behold, thro' fancy's mirrour, what a scene
The phantom opens, ample, wide, and fair,
Each golden minute, bearing as it flies
Imaginary raptures on its wing;
Flatt'ring my fond deluded heart with dreams
Of lasting pleasure--but alas, how soon
This fairy Eden to a waste is turn'd?
The distant landscape, spacious, ample, green,
Which sporting fancy drew, weigh'd in the scale
Of cool experience, shrinks and dies away.
Such to the mast-man's eye, his bark with seas
And skies surrounded, seems Britannia's shore;
Her cliffs now sink, now lessen, now are lost.
As from the rounded top on which he stands
He throws a last sad look, and bids adieu,
To her lov'd island, now an isle no more,
While mingling both, as farther he retires
The cloud and land are one--how clearly now
Do I discern the cheat of earthly joys
Delusive phantoms! vanish'd e'er enjoy'd;
(p. 24)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "fancy's mirrour" in ECCO
Citation
At least 3 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1750, 1757, 1764).
Text from Mr. Hervey’s Contemplations on the Night, Done Into Blank Verse, (After the Manner of Dr. Young) By T. Newcomb, M.A. (London: Printed for J. Rivington and J. Fletcher, in Paternoster Row, 1757). <Link to ESTC>
Text from Mr. Hervey’s Contemplations on the Night, Done Into Blank Verse, (After the Manner of Dr. Young) By T. Newcomb, M.A. (London: Printed for J. Rivington and J. Fletcher, in Paternoster Row, 1757). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
07/30/2014
