A panting heart may be chilled by "hideous forms"

— Penny [née Hughes, formerly Christian], Anne (bap. 1729, d. 1780/4)


Work Title
Date
1773
Metaphor
A panting heart may be chilled by "hideous forms"
Metaphor in Context
Delusive wish was on the wing,
With phantoms fair to cheat;
Inviting views from fancy spring,
And aid the soft deceit.

But ah! what hideous forms succeed,
To chill my panting heart!
My doom I felt at once decreed!
Swift flew the killing dart:

When from Philander's lips I heard
A nymph divinely fair
Employed each thought, her smiles reward
With joy each tender care.

Then dwelling on the dire event,
He poured forth all his mind:
Expressed, in full, his fond content,
And when the fair was kind.
(ll. 33-49, p. 298)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Lonsdale, R. Ed. Eighteenth Century Women Poets. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Date of Entry
07/24/2003

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