The Hue and Cry of John Lewars
written in 1796
The Hue and Cry of John Lewars - meaning Summary
Love as Playful Accusation
The poem stages a playful, mock-legal denunciation of a woman who "steals" the speaker's heart. He frames her as a thief and witch whose looks are dangerously alluring, then oscillates between alarm and rapture. What begins as alarmist rhetoric—warnings to the public about hazard and murder—collapses into private desire: the speaker vows to watch and catch her, imagining her vulnerable and alone. The tone mixes comic exaggeration and romantic obsession, turning accusations of crime into a metaphor for erotic capture and helpless infatuation.
Read Complete AnalysesA thief, and a murderer! Stop her who can! Look well to your lives and your goods! Good people, ye know not the hazard you run, 'Tis the far-famed and much-noted Woods. While I looked at her eye, for the devil is in it, In a trice she whipt off my poor heart: Her brow, cheek and lip - in another sad minute, My peace felt her murderous dart. Her, features, I'll tell you them over - but hold! She deals with your wizards and books; And to peep in her face, if but once you're so bold, There's witchery kills in her looks. But softly - I have it - her haunts are well known, At midnight so slily I'll watch her; And sleeping, undrest, in the dark, all alone Good lord! The dear THIEF HOW I'LL CATCH HER!
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