"The dreadful tales of robbers' bloody deeds, / That oft had swell'd his theme while nightly stretch'd / Now crowded on his mind in all their rage / Of pistols, purses, stand! deliver! death!"
— Wilson, Alexander (1766-1813)
Work Title
Place of Publication
Paisley
Publisher
Printed by J. Neilson
Date
1790
Metaphor
"The dreadful tales of robbers' bloody deeds, / That oft had swell'd his theme while nightly stretch'd / Now crowded on his mind in all their rage / Of pistols, purses, stand! deliver! death!"
Metaphor in Context
The dreadful tales of robbers' bloody deeds,
That oft had swell'd his theme while nightly stretch'd
Beside the list'ning peasant's blazing hearth,
Now crowded on his mind in all their rage
Of pistols, purses, stand! deliver! death!
Trembling he stumbled on, and ever rolled
His jealous eyes around. Each waving shrub
Doubl'd his fears, till, horrible to thought!
The sound of hasty steps alarm'd his ear,
Fast hurrying up behind. Sudden he stopt,
And stooping, could discern, with terror struck,
Between him and the welkin's scanty light,
A black gigantic form of human shape,
And formidably arm'd. Ah! who can tell
The horrors dread that at this instant struck
Ralph's frozen frame. His few gray rev'rend hairs
Rose bristling up, and from his aged scalp,
Up-bore the affrighted bonnet. Down he dropt
Beneath th'oppressive load, but gath'ring soon
A little strength, in desperation crawl'd
To reach some neighb'ring shrubs' concealing shade.
(pp. 263-4 in 1790 edition)
That oft had swell'd his theme while nightly stretch'd
Beside the list'ning peasant's blazing hearth,
Now crowded on his mind in all their rage
Of pistols, purses, stand! deliver! death!
Trembling he stumbled on, and ever rolled
His jealous eyes around. Each waving shrub
Doubl'd his fears, till, horrible to thought!
The sound of hasty steps alarm'd his ear,
Fast hurrying up behind. Sudden he stopt,
And stooping, could discern, with terror struck,
Between him and the welkin's scanty light,
A black gigantic form of human shape,
And formidably arm'd. Ah! who can tell
The horrors dread that at this instant struck
Ralph's frozen frame. His few gray rev'rend hairs
Rose bristling up, and from his aged scalp,
Up-bore the affrighted bonnet. Down he dropt
Beneath th'oppressive load, but gath'ring soon
A little strength, in desperation crawl'd
To reach some neighb'ring shrubs' concealing shade.
(pp. 263-4 in 1790 edition)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "mind" and "crowd" in HDIS (Poetry); found again "heart;" confirmed in ECCO.
Citation
2 entries in ESTC (1790, 1791).
Poems. By Alexander Wilson. (Paisley: Printed by J. Neilson, for the author, 1790). <Link to ESTC>
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).
Poems. By Alexander Wilson. (Paisley: Printed by J. Neilson, for the author, 1790). <Link to ESTC>
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).
Theme
Free Indirect Discourse
Date of Entry
03/07/2006
