Charity Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ KKLLEEMMNNOPQQRRSSTT UUVVVCWWXXEEVVVVYYZZ A2A2VVUB2CCC2C2VVVCV VD2D2FFFFCVE2E2FFFFF 2F2VVUUFFVVXXG2G2H2H 2VVFFVVVVVVI2I2J2J2Q QCVK2K2L2L2FFM2M2N2N 2FFWWHHVVO2O2VVXXP2P 2CVVVVVQ2Q2CVFFL2L2V VVVCCFFR2R2B2B2FFFS2 S2T2Fairest and foremost of the train that wait | A |
On man's most dignified and happiest state | A |
Whether we name thee Charity or Love | B |
Chief grace below and all in all above | B |
Prosper I press thee with a powerful plea | C |
A task I venture on impell d by thee | C |
Oh never seen but in thy blest effects | D |
Or felt but in the soul that Heaven selects | D |
Who seeks to praise thee and to make thee known | E |
To other hearts must have thee in his own | E |
Come prompt me with benevolent desires | F |
Teach me to kindle at thy gentle fires | F |
And though disgraced and slighted to redeem | G |
A poet s name by making thee the theme | G |
God working ever on a social plan | H |
By various ties attaches man to man | H |
He made at first though free and unconfined | I |
One man the common father of the kind | I |
That every tribe though placed as he sees best | J |
Where seas or deserts part them from the rest | J |
Differing in language manners or in face | K |
Might feel themselves allied to all the race | K |
When Cook lamented and with tears as just | L |
As ever mingled with heroic dust | L |
Steer d Britain s oak into a world unknown | E |
And in his country s glory sought his own | E |
Wherever he found man to nature true | M |
The rights of man were sacred in his view | M |
He soothed with gifts and greeted with a smile | N |
The simple native of the new found isle | N |
He spurn d the wretch that slighted or withstood | O |
The tender argument of kindred blood | P |
Nor would endure that any should control | Q |
His freeborn brethren of the southern pole | Q |
But though some nobler minds a law respect | R |
That none shall with impunity neglect | R |
In baser souls unnumber d evils meet | S |
To thwart its influence and its end defeat | S |
While Cook is loved for savage lives he saved | T |
See Cortez odious for a world enslaved | T |
Where wast thou then sweet Charity where then | U |
Thou tutelary friend of helpless men | U |
Wast thou in monkish cells and nunneries found | V |
Or building hospitals on English ground | V |
No Mammon makes the world his legatee | V |
Through fear not love and Heaven abhors the fee | C |
Wherever found and all men need thy care | W |
Nor age nor infancy could find thee there | W |
The hand that slew till it could slay no more | X |
Was glued to the sword hilt with Indian gore | X |
Their prince as justly seated on his throne | E |
As vain imperial Philip on his own | E |
Trick d out of all his royalty by art | V |
That stripp d him bare and broke his honest heart | V |
Died by the sentence of a shaven priest | V |
For scorning what they taught him to detest | V |
How dark the veil that intercepts the blaze | Y |
Of Heaven s mysterious purposes and ways | Y |
God stood not though he seem d to stand aloof | Z |
And at this hour the conqueror feels the proof | Z |
The wreath he won drew down an instant curse | A2 |
The fretting plague is in the public purse | A2 |
The canker d spoil corrodes the pining state | V |
Starved by that indolence their mines create | V |
Oh could their ancient Incas rise again | U |
How would they take up Israel s taunting strain | B2 |
Art thou too fallen Iberia Do we see | C |
The robber and the murderer weak as we | C |
Thou that hast wasted earth and dared despise | C2 |
Alike the wrath and mercy of the skies | C2 |
Thy pomp is in the grave thy glory laid | V |
Low in the pits thine avarice has made | V |
We come with joy from our eternal rest | V |
To see the oppressor in his turn oppress d | C |
Art thou the god the thunder of whose hand | V |
Roll d over all our desolated land | V |
Shook principalities and kingdoms down | D2 |
And made the mountains tremble at his frown | D2 |
The sword shall light upon thy boasted powers | F |
And waste them as thy sword has wasted ours | F |
Tis thus Omnipotence his law fulfils | F |
And vengeance executes what justice wills | F |
Again the band of commerce was design d | C |
To associate all the branches of mankind | V |
And if a boundless plenty be the robe | E2 |
Trade is the golden girdle of the globe | E2 |
Wise to promote whatever end he means | F |
God opens fruitful Nature s various scenes | F |
Each climate needs what other climes produce | F |
And offers something to the general use | F |
No land but listens to the common call | F2 |
And in return receives supply from all | F2 |
This genial intercourse and mutual aid | V |
Cheers what were else a universal shade | V |
Calls nature from her ivy mantled den | U |
And softens human rock work into men | U |
Ingenious Art with her expressive face | F |
Steps forth to fashion and refine the race | F |
Not only fills necessity s demand | V |
But overcharges her capacious hand | V |
Capricious taste itself can crave no more | X |
Than she supplies from her abounding store | X |
She strikes out all that luxury can ask | G2 |
And gains new vigour at her endless task | G2 |
Hers is the spacious arch the shapely spire | H2 |
The painter s pencil and the poet s lyre | H2 |
From her the canvas borrows light and shade | V |
And verse more lasting hues that never fade | V |
She guides the finger o er the dancing keys | F |
Gives difficulty all the grace of ease | F |
And pours a torrent of sweet notes around | V |
Fast as the thirsting ear can drink the sound | V |
These are the gifts of art and art thrives most | V |
Where Commerce has enrich d the busy coast | V |
He catches all improvements in his flight | V |
Spreads foreign wonders in his country s sight | V |
Imports what others have invented well | I2 |
And stirs his own to match them or excel | I2 |
Tis thus reciprocating each with each | J2 |
Alternately the nations learn and teach | J2 |
While Providence enjoins to ev ry soul | Q |
A union with the vast terraqueous whole | Q |
Heaven speed the canvas gallantly unfurl d | C |
To furnish and accommodate a world | V |
To give the pole the produce of the sun | K2 |
And knit the unsocial climates into one | K2 |
Soft airs and gentle heavings of the wave | L2 |
Impel the fleet whose errand is to save | L2 |
To succour wasted regions and replace | F |
The smile of opulence in sorrow s face | F |
Let nothing adverse nothing unforeseen | M2 |
Impede the bark that ploughs the deep serene | M2 |
Charged with a freight transcending in its worth | N2 |
The gems of India Nature s rarest birth | N2 |
That flies like Gabriel on his Lord s commands | F |
A herald of God s love to pagan lands | F |
But ah what wish can prosper or what prayer | W |
For merchants rich in cargoes of despair | W |
Who drive a loathsome traffic gauge and span | H |
And buy the muscles and the bones of man | H |
The tender ties of father husband friend | V |
All bonds of nature in that moment end | V |
And each endures while yet he draws his breath | O2 |
A stroke as fatal as the scythe of death | O2 |
The sable warrior frantic with regret | V |
Of her he loves and never can forget | V |
Loses in tears the far receding shore | X |
But not the thought that they must meet no more | X |
Deprived of her and freedom at a blow | P2 |
What has he left that he can yet forego | P2 |
Yes to deep sadness sullenly resign d | C |
He feels his body s bondage in his mind | V |
Puts off his generous nature and to suit | V |
His manners with his fate puts on the brute | V |
Oh most degrading of all ills that wait | V |
On man a mourner in his best estate | V |
All other sorrows virtue may endure | Q2 |
And find submission more than half a cure | Q2 |
Grief is itself a medicine and bestow d | C |
To improve the fortitude that bears the load | V |
To teach the wanderer as his woes increase | F |
The path of wisdom all whose paths are peace | F |
But slavery Virtue dreads it as her grave | L2 |
Patience itself is meanness in a slave | L2 |
Or if the will and sovereignty of God | V |
Bid suffer it a while and kiss the rod | V |
Wait for the dawning of a brighter day | V |
And snap the chain the moment when you may | V |
Nature imprints upon whate er we see | C |
That has a heart and life in it Be free | C |
The beasts are charter d neither age nor force | F |
Can quell the love of freedom in a horse | F |
He breaks the cord that held him at the rack | R2 |
And conscious of an unencumber d back | R2 |
Snuffs up the morning air forgets the rein | B2 |
Loose fly his forelock and his ample mane | B2 |
Responsive to the distant neigh he neighs | F |
Nor stops till overleaping all delays | F |
He finds the pasture where his fellows graze | F |
Canst thou and honour d with a Christian name | S2 |
Buy what is woman born and feel no shame | S2 |
Trade i | T2 |
William Cowper
(1)
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