"The yielding paper's pure, but vacant breast, / By her fair hand and flowing pen imprest, / At ev'ry touch more animated grows."

— Jenyns, Soame (1704-1787)


Place of Publication
London
Date
1752, 1790
Metaphor
"The yielding paper's pure, but vacant breast, / By her fair hand and flowing pen imprest, / At ev'ry touch more animated grows."
Metaphor in Context
See with what art the sable currents stain
In wand'ring mazes all the milk-white plain!
Thus o'er the meadows wrap'd in silver snow
Unfrozen brooks in dark meanders flow;
Thus jetty curls in shining ringlets deck
The ivory plain of lovely CHLOE's neck:
See, like some virgin, whose unmeaning charms
Receive new lustre from a lover's arms, [end page 127]
The yielding paper's pure, but vacant breast,
By her fair hand and flowing pen imprest,
At ev'ry touch more animated grows
,
And with new life and new ideas glows,
Fresh beauties from the kind defiler gains,
And shines each moment brighter from its stains.
(pp. 127-8)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "breast" and "paper" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Text from The Works of Soame Jenyns, 4 vols. (London: Printed for T. Cadell, 1790).

See Soame Jenyns, Poems. By *****. (London: Printed for R. Dodsley, 1752). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO>
Theme
Blank Slate
Date of Entry
03/26/2005
Date of Review
01/24/2006

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