"There, train'd amid slaughter and ruin to wade, / They toil in the heart-steeling, barbarous trade."
— Wilson, Alexander (1766-1813)
Work Title
Place of Publication
Glasgow
Date
1793
Metaphor
"There, train'd amid slaughter and ruin to wade, / They toil in the heart-steeling, barbarous trade."
Metaphor in Context
'From weeping relations, regardlessly torn,
Her unthinking youths to the battle are borne;
There, train'd amid slaughter and ruin to wade,
They toil in the heart-steeling, barbarous trade.
What crowds, hurried on by the terrible call,
Pale, ghastly, and blood-covered carcases fall!
Earth heaves with the heaps, still resigning their breath,
And friends, foes, and kindred, lie wallowing in death.
Her unthinking youths to the battle are borne;
There, train'd amid slaughter and ruin to wade,
They toil in the heart-steeling, barbarous trade.
What crowds, hurried on by the terrible call,
Pale, ghastly, and blood-covered carcases fall!
Earth heaves with the heaps, still resigning their breath,
And friends, foes, and kindred, lie wallowing in death.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "heart" and "steel" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Only 1 entry in ESTC (1790).
The Tears of Britain. a Poem. By Alexander Wilson. (Glasgow: 1790?). [Text not available in ECCO]
Text from The Poems and Literary Prose of Alexander Wilson for the First Time Fully Collected and Compared With the Original and Early Editions, ed. by the Rev. Alexander B. Grosart (Paisley: Alex. Gardner, 1876).
The Tears of Britain. a Poem. By Alexander Wilson. (Glasgow: 1790?). [Text not available in ECCO]
Text from The Poems and Literary Prose of Alexander Wilson for the First Time Fully Collected and Compared With the Original and Early Editions, ed. by the Rev. Alexander B. Grosart (Paisley: Alex. Gardner, 1876).
Date of Entry
06/11/2005
