On waking one may feel "A darksome mist, which rises from my mind, /And, like sweet sun-shine, leaves your name behind"

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by T. Gardner
Date
1751
Metaphor
On waking one may feel "A darksome mist, which rises from my mind, /And, like sweet sun-shine, leaves your name behind"
Metaphor in Context
'A true picture of my heart, in the different stages of its worship

A POEM, most humbly inscribed to the never-enough deified Miss Betsy Thoughtless.

'When first from my unfinish'd sleep I start,
'I feel a flutt'ring faintness round my heart;
'A darksome mist, which rises from my mind,
'And, like sweet sun-shine, leaves your name behind.


'When from your shadow to yourself I fly,
'To drink in transport at my thirsty eye,
'Each orb surveys you with a kindling sight,
'And trembles to sustain the vast delight:
'From head to foot, o'er all your heav'n they stray,
'Dazzled with lustre in your milky way:
'At last you speak, and, as I start to hear,
'My soul is all collected in my ear.

'But when resistless transport makes me bold,
'And your soft hand inclosed in mine I hold,
'Then flooding raptures swim through ev'ry vein,
'And each swol'n art'ry throbs with pleasing pain.

'Fain would I snatch you to my longing arms,
'And grasp in extacy your blazing charms:
'O then,--how vain the wish that I pursue!
'I would lose all myself, and mix with you:
'Involv'd,--embody'd, with your beauties join,
'As fires meet fires, and mingle in their shine;
'Absorb'd in bliss, I would dissolving lie,
'Become all you, and soul and body die.
'Weigh well these symptoms, and then judge, in part,
'The poignant anguish of the bleeding heart
'Of him, who is, with unutterable love, Resplendent charmer,
'Your hoping,--fearing, languishing adorer,

'F. Fineer.
(pp. 43-4)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "predominant passion" in HDIS
Citation
9 entries in the ESTC (1751, 1752, 1762, 1765, 1768, 1772, 1783).

See Eliza Haywood, The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless, In Four Volumes (London: Printed by T. Gardner, 1751). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO>

Reading The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless, ed. Christine Blouch (Peterborough: Broadview, 1998).
Date of Entry
06/05/2004

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.