"The first Impression in her Infant Breast / Will be the deepest, and should be the best."

— Dillon, Wentworth, 4th Earl of Roscommon (1637-1685)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for Jacob Tonson
Date
1684
Metaphor
"The first Impression in her Infant Breast / Will be the deepest, and should be the best."
Metaphor in Context
With how much ease is a young Muse Betray'd,
How nice the Reputation of the Maid!
Your early, kind, paternal care appears,
By chast Instruction of her Tender Years.
The first Impression in her Infant Breast
Will be the deepest, and should be the best

Let no Austerity breed servile Fear,
No wanton Sound offend her Virgin-Ear.
Secure from foolish Pride's affected state,
And specious Flattery's more pernicious Bait,
Habitual Innocence adorns her Thoughts
But your neglect must answer for her Faults
Provenance
Searching "breast" and "impression" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
6 entries in ESTC (1684, 1685, 1709, 1717).

See An Essay on Translated Verse. By the Earl of Roscomon. (London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, 1684). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
05/20/2005
Date of Review
06/05/2011

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