"Ah, not alone of power possest / To check each virtue of the breast; / As when the numbing frosts arise / The charm of vegetation dies."

— Williams, Helen Maria (1759-1827)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for T. Cadell
Date
1788
Metaphor
"Ah, not alone of power possest / To check each virtue of the breast; / As when the numbing frosts arise / The charm of vegetation dies."
Metaphor in Context
Then seize the moments in your power,
To Mercy consecrate the hour!
Risque something in her cause at last,
And thus atone for all the past;
Break the hard fetters of the Slave;
And learn the luxury to save!--
Does Avarice, your god, delight
With agony to feast his sight?
Does he requre that victims slain,
And human blood, his altars stain?
Ah, not alone of power possest
To check each virtue of the breast;
As when the numbing frosts arise,
The charm of vegetation dies
;
His sway the harden'd bosom leads
To Cruelty's remorseless deeds;
Like the blue lightning when it springs
With fury on its livid wings,
Darts to its goal with baleful force,
Nor heeds that ruin marks its course.--
(pp. 20-1, ll. 301-320)
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Only 1 entry in ESTC (1788).

Helen Maria Williams, A Poem on the Bill Lately Passed for Regulating the Slave Trade (London: Printed for T. Cadell, 1788). <Link to ECCO><Link to facsimile edition in Google Books>
Date of Entry
09/02/2011

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