"Th' identick Shape thy Fancy would retain, / Engraven in eternal Characters / While Memory holds its Empire in the Brain."
— Wesley, Samuel, the Younger (1691-1739)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by Edward Say
Date
1736, 1743
Metaphor
"Th' identick Shape thy Fancy would retain, / Engraven in eternal Characters / While Memory holds its Empire in the Brain."
Metaphor in Context
His Colours strange, what mortal Painter's Hand.
With all his Lights and Shadings can express!
Inexplicably grisly! But his Tail,
Oh! had'st Thou seen his Tail, the matchless Shape
Th' identick Shape thy Fancy would retain,
Engraven in eternal Characters,
While Memory holds its Empire in the Brain:
A Line like which not Archimedes old
In yielding Sand e'er trac'd, nor greater Skill
Of modern Newton e'er has yet on Slate
'Midst Figures Curve or Rectilinear drawn:
Transverse, disjointed from the sacred Bone,
It stood, as nought of kindred to the Parts
Posterior whence it grew, or rather seem'd
T' adhere not native there: So Misletoe
Seems only grafted on its Parent Oak:
Nor uniform the Length; part dangling lithe,
Part horizontal stiff, tho' not so stiff
As Tail of Memphian Crocodile full-grown.
(p. 149-50 in 1736 ed.)
With all his Lights and Shadings can express!
Inexplicably grisly! But his Tail,
Oh! had'st Thou seen his Tail, the matchless Shape
Th' identick Shape thy Fancy would retain,
Engraven in eternal Characters,
While Memory holds its Empire in the Brain:
A Line like which not Archimedes old
In yielding Sand e'er trac'd, nor greater Skill
Of modern Newton e'er has yet on Slate
'Midst Figures Curve or Rectilinear drawn:
Transverse, disjointed from the sacred Bone,
It stood, as nought of kindred to the Parts
Posterior whence it grew, or rather seem'd
T' adhere not native there: So Misletoe
Seems only grafted on its Parent Oak:
Nor uniform the Length; part dangling lithe,
Part horizontal stiff, tho' not so stiff
As Tail of Memphian Crocodile full-grown.
(p. 149-50 in 1736 ed.)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "fancy" and "engrav" in HDIS (Poetry); confirmed in ECCO
Citation
At least 3 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1736, 1743).
See Poems on Several Occasions. By Samuel Wesley, A.M. Master of Blundell’s School at Tiverton, Devon. Sometime Student of Christ-Church; and Near Twenty Years Usher in Westminster-School. (London: Printed by Edward Say in Warwick-Lane, 1736). <Link to ESTC>
Text from 2nd edition of 1743. See Poems on Several Occasions. By Samuel Wesley, A.M., 2nd edition, with additions. (Cambridge: Printed by J. Bentham, Printer to the University, for J. Brotherton in Cornhill, and S. Birt in Ave-Mary Lane, London, 1743 [1744]). <Link to ESTC>
See Poems on Several Occasions. By Samuel Wesley, A.M. Master of Blundell’s School at Tiverton, Devon. Sometime Student of Christ-Church; and Near Twenty Years Usher in Westminster-School. (London: Printed by Edward Say in Warwick-Lane, 1736). <Link to ESTC>
Text from 2nd edition of 1743. See Poems on Several Occasions. By Samuel Wesley, A.M., 2nd edition, with additions. (Cambridge: Printed by J. Bentham, Printer to the University, for J. Brotherton in Cornhill, and S. Birt in Ave-Mary Lane, London, 1743 [1744]). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
03/09/2005
