"Till mighty conscience, whose prevailing call / Opes the dread volume of her laws to all."
— Wodhull, Michael (1740-1816)
Author
Work Title
Date
1765, 1770
Metaphor
"Till mighty conscience, whose prevailing call / Opes the dread volume of her laws to all."
Metaphor in Context
In Judah's soil the tree of knowledge grew,
Whose fruit unsound, yet specious to the view,
Entrusted to the treacherous Levite's care,
Fell, ere it ripen'd, in that baleful air;
Relentless Cowards! with a brutal hand
Urging their fraudful progress thro' the land,
O'er Nature's parting agonies they trod,
And slaughter'd millions in the name of God,
Each right of arms infringing, nor forbore
To dip their reeking blades in infant gore;
Till mighty conscience, whose prevailing call
Opes the dread volume of her laws to all,
Bewail'd them darken'd by so strong a taint;
That none discern'd the villain from the saint.
(pp. 237-8)
Whose fruit unsound, yet specious to the view,
Entrusted to the treacherous Levite's care,
Fell, ere it ripen'd, in that baleful air;
Relentless Cowards! with a brutal hand
Urging their fraudful progress thro' the land,
O'er Nature's parting agonies they trod,
And slaughter'd millions in the name of God,
Each right of arms infringing, nor forbore
To dip their reeking blades in infant gore;
Till mighty conscience, whose prevailing call
Opes the dread volume of her laws to all,
Bewail'd them darken'd by so strong a taint;
That none discern'd the villain from the saint.
(pp. 237-8)
Categories
Provenance
ECCO-TCP
Citation
ECCO and ESTC (1765, 1772, 1775, 1798, 1799).
See The Equality of Mankind. A Poem. By Mr. Wodhull. (Oxford: Printed by W. Jackson: sold by T. Beckett, and P. A. de Hondt, in the Strand; and T. Payne, at the Meuse-Gate, London, 1765)
Text from A Collection of Poems in Four Volumes. by Several Hands (London: Printed for G. Pearch, 1770). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
See The Equality of Mankind. A Poem. By Mr. Wodhull. (Oxford: Printed by W. Jackson: sold by T. Beckett, and P. A. de Hondt, in the Strand; and T. Payne, at the Meuse-Gate, London, 1765)
Text from A Collection of Poems in Four Volumes. by Several Hands (London: Printed for G. Pearch, 1770). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Date of Entry
11/10/2013
