"From a stranger hand / Ah, what can infancy expect, when she / Whose essence was inwove with thine, whose life, / Whose soul thou didst participate, neglects / Herself in thee, and breaks the strongest seal / Which nature stamp'd in vain upon her heart"
— Downman, Hugh (1740-1809)
Author
Date
1774-1776, 1788, 1803
Metaphor
"From a stranger hand / Ah, what can infancy expect, when she / Whose essence was inwove with thine, whose life, / Whose soul thou didst participate, neglects / Herself in thee, and breaks the strongest seal / Which nature stamp'd in vain upon her heart"
Metaphor in Context
O Mother (let me by that tenderest name
Conjure thee) still pursue the task begun;
Nor unless urged by strong necessity,
Some fated, some peculiar circumstance,
By which thy health may suffer, or thy child
Inhale disease, or that the genial food
Too scanty flows, give to an Alien's care
Thy orphan babe. Oh! if by choice thou dost--
What shall I call thee? woman? No, tho fair
Thy face, and deckt with unimagined charms
Tho sweetness seem pourtray'd in every line,
And smiles which might become a Hebe, rise
At will, crisping thy rosy cheeks, though all
That's lovely, kind, attractive, elegant,
Dwell in thy outward shape, and catch the eye
Of gazing rapture, all is but deceit;
The form of woman's thine, but not the soul.
Had'st thou been treated thus, perchance the prey
Of death long since, no child of thine had known
An equal lot severe. O unblown flower!
Soft bud of spring! Planted in foreign soil,
How wilt thou prosper! Brush'd by other winds
In a new clime, and fed by other dews
Than suit thy nature! From a stranger hand
Ah, what can infancy expect, when she
Whose essence was inwove with thine, whose life,
Whose soul thou didst participate, neglects
Herself in thee, and breaks the strongest seal
Which nature stamp'd in vain upon her heart.
(Book I, pp. 11-13 in 1803 ed.; confirmed in 1776 ed., pp. 10-11)
Conjure thee) still pursue the task begun;
Nor unless urged by strong necessity,
Some fated, some peculiar circumstance,
By which thy health may suffer, or thy child
Inhale disease, or that the genial food
Too scanty flows, give to an Alien's care
Thy orphan babe. Oh! if by choice thou dost--
What shall I call thee? woman? No, tho fair
Thy face, and deckt with unimagined charms
Tho sweetness seem pourtray'd in every line,
And smiles which might become a Hebe, rise
At will, crisping thy rosy cheeks, though all
That's lovely, kind, attractive, elegant,
Dwell in thy outward shape, and catch the eye
Of gazing rapture, all is but deceit;
The form of woman's thine, but not the soul.
Had'st thou been treated thus, perchance the prey
Of death long since, no child of thine had known
An equal lot severe. O unblown flower!
Soft bud of spring! Planted in foreign soil,
How wilt thou prosper! Brush'd by other winds
In a new clime, and fed by other dews
Than suit thy nature! From a stranger hand
Ah, what can infancy expect, when she
Whose essence was inwove with thine, whose life,
Whose soul thou didst participate, neglects
Herself in thee, and breaks the strongest seal
Which nature stamp'd in vain upon her heart.
(Book I, pp. 11-13 in 1803 ed.; confirmed in 1776 ed., pp. 10-11)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "heart" and "stamp" in HDIS (Poetry); Found again searching "seal"
Citation
7 entries in the ESTC (1774, 1775, 1776, 1778, 1788, 1790).
Text from Infancy, or the Management of Children: a Didactic Poem, in Six Books. the Sixth Edition. To Which Are Added Poems Not Before Published. by Hugh Downman. 6th ed. (Exeter: Printed by Trewman and Son; sold by them and Cadell and Davies, London, 1803).
First printed in three books, 1774-1776. See Infancy; or, the Management of Children. A Didactic Poem, in Three Books. By Hugh Downman, M. D. (Edinburgh: Printed for John Bell, 1776).
Printed in six books in the 4th edition of 1788. See Infancy, or the Management of Children, a Didactic Poem, in Six Books. The Fourth Edition. By Hugh Downman, M.D. (Edinburgh: Printed for John Bell: G. G. J. & J. Robinson, G. & T. Wilkie; and G. Kearsley, London, 1788).
Text from Infancy, or the Management of Children: a Didactic Poem, in Six Books. the Sixth Edition. To Which Are Added Poems Not Before Published. by Hugh Downman. 6th ed. (Exeter: Printed by Trewman and Son; sold by them and Cadell and Davies, London, 1803).
First printed in three books, 1774-1776. See Infancy; or, the Management of Children. A Didactic Poem, in Three Books. By Hugh Downman, M. D. (Edinburgh: Printed for John Bell, 1776).
Printed in six books in the 4th edition of 1788. See Infancy, or the Management of Children, a Didactic Poem, in Six Books. The Fourth Edition. By Hugh Downman, M.D. (Edinburgh: Printed for John Bell: G. G. J. & J. Robinson, G. & T. Wilkie; and G. Kearsley, London, 1788).
Date of Entry
04/07/2005
