Penny Dreadfuls, 1812 · page 144 of 258
Psyche, and other poems — page 144: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 126: Verse on Love and Consolation This is a text page containing poetry (page 126 of what appears to be a serialized work). The verses use romantic, sentimental language to counsel that Love provides comfort during hardship and distress—comparing it to a mother's breast soothing an infant, and to a protective plant that blooms in summer but persists through winter. The poem employs extended metaphors involving nature (roses, red-breasts, spring) to urge the reader to cherish Love as a treasure and guard it against peevishness, warning that ill-temper can destroy it. The elaborate, moralistic tone is typical of Victorian sentimental literature, though whether this appears in a penny dreadful or higher-class publication remains unclear from the image alone.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
126 When vexed by cares and harassed by distress, . ‘The storms of fortune chill thy soul with dread, Let Love, consoling Love! still sweetly bless, And his assuasive balm benignly shed : His downy plumage o’er thy pillow spread Shall lull thy weeping sorrows to repose ; To Love the tender heart hath ever fled, - As on its mother’s breast the infant throws Its sobbing face, and there in sleep forgets its woes. Oh! fondly cherish then the lovely plant, Which lenient Heaven hath given thy pains to ease ; . Its lustre shall thy summer hours enchant, And load with fragrance every prosperous breeze, And when rude winter shall thy roses seize, When nought through all thy bowers but thorns re- main, This still with undeciduous charms shall please, ) Screen from the blast and shelter from the rain, And still with verdure, cheer the desolated plain. Through the hard season Love with plaintive note Like the kind red-breast tenderly shall sing, | Which swells mid dreary snows its tuneful throat, Brushing the cold dews from its shivering wings With cheerful promise of returning spring — To the mute tenants of the leafiess grove. oe Guard thy best treasure from the venomed. stings Of baneful peevishness ; oh! never prove How soon ill-temper’s power can banish gentle Love! Comichbooksscom