"Instead of hallow'd hill, or vocal vale, / Or stream, sweet-echoing to the tuneful tale; / Damp dens confin'd, or barren desarts spread, / Which spectres haunted, and the muses fled; / Ruins in pensive emblem seem'd to rise, / And all was dark, or wild, to Fancy's eyes."
— Savage, Richard (1697/8-1743)
Date
1733, 1777
Metaphor
"Instead of hallow'd hill, or vocal vale, / Or stream, sweet-echoing to the tuneful tale; / Damp dens confin'd, or barren desarts spread, / Which spectres haunted, and the muses fled; / Ruins in pensive emblem seem'd to rise, / And all was dark, or wild, to Fancy's eyes."
Metaphor in Context
"Great Princess, 'tis decreed! once ev'ry year,
"I march uncall'd, your Laureat-Volunteer."
So sung the muse; nor sung the muse in vain:
My Queen accepts, the year renews the strain.
Ere first your influence shone with heav'nly aid,
Each thought was terror; for each view was shade.
Fortune to life each flow'ry path deny'd;
No science learn'd to bloom, no lay to glide.
Instead of hallow'd hill, or vocal vale,
Or stream, sweet-echoing to the tuneful tale;
Damp dens confin'd, or barren desarts spread,
Which spectres haunted, and the muses fled;
Ruins in pensive emblem seem'd to rise,
And all was dark, or wild, to Fancy's eyes.
(p. 223, ll. 1-14)
"I march uncall'd, your Laureat-Volunteer."
So sung the muse; nor sung the muse in vain:
My Queen accepts, the year renews the strain.
Ere first your influence shone with heav'nly aid,
Each thought was terror; for each view was shade.
Fortune to life each flow'ry path deny'd;
No science learn'd to bloom, no lay to glide.
Instead of hallow'd hill, or vocal vale,
Or stream, sweet-echoing to the tuneful tale;
Damp dens confin'd, or barren desarts spread,
Which spectres haunted, and the muses fled;
Ruins in pensive emblem seem'd to rise,
And all was dark, or wild, to Fancy's eyes.
(p. 223, ll. 1-14)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
At least 8 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1734, 1765, 1777, 1780, 1775, 1777, 1780, 1790).
The second of five such "volunteer" birthday poems. See The Volunteer-Laureat. Most Humbly Inscribed to Her Majesty, on her Birth-day. By Richard Savage Esq. Number II. For the Year 1733. To Be Continued Annually. (London: Printed for L. Gilliver, over-against St. Dunstan's-Church in Fleet-Street, 1733), p. 5. <Link to ECCO>
Text from The Works of Richard Savage ... With an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author, by Samuel Johnson. A New Edition (London: Printed for T. Evans, 1777). <Link to LION>
The second of five such "volunteer" birthday poems. See The Volunteer-Laureat. Most Humbly Inscribed to Her Majesty, on her Birth-day. By Richard Savage Esq. Number II. For the Year 1733. To Be Continued Annually. (London: Printed for L. Gilliver, over-against St. Dunstan's-Church in Fleet-Street, 1733), p. 5. <Link to ECCO>
Text from The Works of Richard Savage ... With an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author, by Samuel Johnson. A New Edition (London: Printed for T. Evans, 1777). <Link to LION>
Theme
Mind's Eye
Date of Entry
08/25/2014
