One's thought may ache at someone
— Gray, Thomas (1716-1771)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
York
Publisher
Mason
Date
1775
Metaphor
One's thought may ache at someone
Metaphor in Context
My thought aches at him; not the basilisk
More deadly to the sight than is to me
The cool injurious eye of frozen kindness.
I will not meet its poison. Let him feel
Before he sees me. Yes, I will be gone,
But not to Antium--all shall be confessed,
Whate'er the frivolous tongue of giddy fame
Has spread among the crowd; things that but whispered
Have arched the hearer's brow and riveted
His eyes in fearful ecstasy: no matter
What, so it be strange, and dreadful--sorceries,
Assassinations, poisonings; the deeper
My guilt, the blacker his ingratitude.
(ll. 156-68, pp. 41-2)
More deadly to the sight than is to me
The cool injurious eye of frozen kindness.
I will not meet its poison. Let him feel
Before he sees me. Yes, I will be gone,
But not to Antium--all shall be confessed,
Whate'er the frivolous tongue of giddy fame
Has spread among the crowd; things that but whispered
Have arched the hearer's brow and riveted
His eyes in fearful ecstasy: no matter
What, so it be strange, and dreadful--sorceries,
Assassinations, poisonings; the deeper
My guilt, the blacker his ingratitude.
(ll. 156-68, pp. 41-2)
Categories
Provenance
HDIS
Citation
Reading Roger Lonsdale's edition of The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, and Oliver Goldsmith (London and New York: Longman and Norton: 1972).
Date of Entry
11/11/2003
