"'Fancy enervates, while it sooths, the heart, / 'And, while it dazzles, wounds the mental sight: / 'To joy each heightening charm it can impart, / 'But wraps the hour of wo in tenfold night."
— Beattie, James (1735-1803)
Author
Date
1771, 1776
Metaphor
"'Fancy enervates, while it sooths, the heart, / 'And, while it dazzles, wounds the mental sight: / 'To joy each heightening charm it can impart, / 'But wraps the hour of wo in tenfold night."
Metaphor in Context
XL
'Fancy enervates, while it sooths, the heart,
'And, while it dazzles, wounds the mental sight:
'To joy each heightening charm it can impart,
'But wraps the hour of wo in tenfold night.
'And often, where no real ills affright,
'Its visionary fiends, an endless train,
'Assail with equal or superior might,
'And through the throbbing heart, and dizzy brain,
'And shivering nerves, shoot stings of more than mortal pain.
(Bk II, p. 36, ll. 352-60)
'Fancy enervates, while it sooths, the heart,
'And, while it dazzles, wounds the mental sight:
'To joy each heightening charm it can impart,
'But wraps the hour of wo in tenfold night.
'And often, where no real ills affright,
'Its visionary fiends, an endless train,
'Assail with equal or superior might,
'And through the throbbing heart, and dizzy brain,
'And shivering nerves, shoot stings of more than mortal pain.
(Bk II, p. 36, ll. 352-60)
Categories
Provenance
C-H Lion
Citation
Over 20 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1771, 1772, 1774, 1775, 1776, 1779, 1782, 1784, 1785, 1792, 1794, 1795, 1797, 1799, 1800). Collected in The Muse's Pocket Companion, The Bouquet, A Selection of Poems, and A Classical Arrangement of Fugitive Poetry.
"Book The First" printed anonymously in 1771; reprinted in 1772, 1774, etc. The second book was first printed in 1774. See David Radcliffe's Spenser and the Tradition.
See The Minstrel; or, the Progress of Genius. A Poem. Book the First. (London: Printed for E. & C. Dilly, in the Poultry, and for A. Kincaid & J. Bell, Edinburgh, 1771). <Link to ESTC>
Text from Poems on Several Occasions, by James Beattie, LL. D. Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Aberdeen. (Edinburgh: Printed for W. Creech, 1776). <Link to ESTC>
"Book The First" printed anonymously in 1771; reprinted in 1772, 1774, etc. The second book was first printed in 1774. See David Radcliffe's Spenser and the Tradition.
See The Minstrel; or, the Progress of Genius. A Poem. Book the First. (London: Printed for E. & C. Dilly, in the Poultry, and for A. Kincaid & J. Bell, Edinburgh, 1771). <Link to ESTC>
Text from Poems on Several Occasions, by James Beattie, LL. D. Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Aberdeen. (Edinburgh: Printed for W. Creech, 1776). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
07/02/2013
