The Task: Book Ii. -- The Time-piece Poem Rhyme Scheme

Recent Interactions*

This poem was read 32 times,

This poem was added to the favorite list by 0 members,

This poem was voted by 0 members.

(* Interactions only in the last 7 days)

New Poems

A Simple Gift Of Clarity
by Michael Mcguire
Ring Of Fire
by N. Khanyile
A Disturbing Dream
by Marlon Pitter
Crab Lice
by Marlon Pitter
Biography Of The Anonymous
by Gilbert Sordebabari
Lost In Search Of A Saved Child
by Michael Mcguire
Dark Lens
by Gilbert Sordebabari
The Ship
by Pieter Sanders
Rose Bush
by Aubrie J Chellman
Between Condemning Bad Acts And Doing Bad Things, Which One Is Worse?
by Marlon Pitter

Popular Poets

1. Emily Dickinson(2415 poems)
2. Madison Julius Cawein(1231 poems)
3. Ella Wheeler Wilcox(1136 poems)
4. William Wordsworth(1016 poems)
5. Robert Burns(986 poems)
6. Edgar Albert Guest(945 poems)
7. Thomas Moore(849 poems)
8. Robert Service(831 poems)

Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness	A
Some boundless contiguity of shade	B
Where rumour of oppression and deceit	C
Of unsuccessful or successful war	D
Might never reach me more My ear is pained	E
My soul is sick with every day's report	F
Of wrong and outrage with which earth is filled	G
There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart	H
It does not feel for man The natural bond	I
Of brotherhood is severed as the flax	J
That falls asunder at the touch of fire	K
He finds his fellow guilty of a skin	L
Not coloured like his own and having power	K
To enforce the wrong for such a worthy cause	M
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey	N
Lands intersected by a narrow frith	O
Abhor each other Mountains interposed	I
Make enemies of nations who had else	P
Like kindred drops been mingled into one	Q
Thus man devotes his brother and destroys	R
And worse than all and most to be deplored	I
As human nature's broadest foulest blot	I
Chains him and tasks him and exacts his sweat	I
With stripes that mercy with a bleeding heart	I
Weeps when she sees inflicted on a beast	I
Then what is man And what man seeing this	S
And having human feelings does not blush	T
And hang his head to think himself a man	U
I would not have a slave to till my ground	I
To carry me to fan me while I sleep	V
And tremble when I wake for all the wealth	W
That sinews bought and sold have ever earned	I
No dear as freedom is and in my heart's	X
Just estimation prized above all price	Y
I had much rather be myself the slave	Z
And wear the bonds than fasten them on him	A2
We have no slaves at home Then why abroad	I
And they themselves once ferried o'er the wave	Z
That parts us are emancipate and loosed	I
Slaves cannot breathe in England if their lungs	B2
Receive our air that moment they are free	C2
They touch our country and their shackles fall	D2
That's noble and bespeaks a nation proud	I
And jealous of the blessing Spread it then	E2
And let it circulate through every vein	F2
Of all your empire that where Britain's power	K
Is felt mankind may feel her mercy too	I
	-
Sure there is need of social intercourse	G2
Benevolence and peace and mutual aid	I
Between the nations in a world that seems	H2
To toll the death bell of its own decease	I2
And by the voice of all its elements	J2
To preach the general doom When were the winds	K2
Let slip with such a warrant to destroy	L2
When did the waves so haughtily o'erleap	V
Their ancient barriers deluging the dry	M2
Fire from beneath and meteors from above	N2
Portentous unexampled unexplained	I
Have kindled beacons in the skies and the old	I
And crazy earth has had her shaking fits	O2
More frequent and foregone her usual rest	I
Is it a time to wrangle when the props	P2
And pillars of our planet seem to fail	Q2
And nature with a dim and sickly eye	M2
To wait the close of all But grant her end	I
More distant adn that prophecy demands	R2
A longer respite unaccomplished yet	I
Still they are frowning signals and bespeak	S2
Displeasure in his breast who smites the earth	T2
Or heals it makes it languish or rejoice	U2
And 'tis but seemly that where all deserve	V2
And stand exposed by common peccancy	U2
To what no few have felt there should be peace	U2
And brethren in calamity should love	N2
	-
Alas for Sicily rude fragments now	W2
Lie scattered where the shapely column stood	I
Her palaces are dust In all her streets	U2
The voice of singing and the sprightly chord	I
Are silent Revelry and dance and show	X2
Suffer a syncope and solemn pause	U2
While God performs upon the trembling stage	Y2
Of his own works his dreadful part alone	Z2
How does the earth receive him with what signs	U2
Of gratulation and delight her king	A3
Pours she not all her choicest fruits abroad	I
Her sweetest flowers her aromatic gums	U2
Disclosing paradise where'er he treads	U2
She quakes at his approach Her hollow womb	B3
Conceiving thunders through a thousand deeps	U2
And fiery caverns roars beneath his foot	I
The hills move lightly and the mountains smoke	C3
For He has touched them From the extremest point	I
Of elevation down into the abyss	U2
His wrath is busy and his frown is felt	I
The rocks fall headlong and the valleys rise	U2
The rivers die into offensive pools	U2
And charged with putrid verdure breathe a gross	U2
And mortal nuisance into all the air	D3
What solid was by transformation strange	E3
Grows fluid and the fixed and rooted earth	T2
Tormented into billows heaves and swells	U2
Or with vortiginous and hideous whirl	F3
Sucks down its prey insatiable Immense	U2
The tumult and the overthrow the pangs	U2
And agonies of human and of brute	I
Multitudes fugitive on every side	I
Migrates uplifted and with all its soil	G3
Alighting in far distant fields finds out	I
A new possessor and survives the change	E3
Ocean has caught the frenzy and upwrought	I
To an enormous and o'erbearing height	I
Not by a mighty wind but by that voice	U2
Which winds and waves obey invades the shore	D
Resistless Never such a sudden flood	I
Upridged so high and sent on such a charge	H3
Possessed an inland scene Where now the throng	I3
That pressed the beach and hasty to depart	I
Looked to the sea for safety They are gone	J3
Gone with the refluent wave into the deep	V
A prince with half his people Ancient towers	U2
And roofs embattled high the gloomy scenes	U2
Where beauty oft and lettered worth consume	B3
Life in the unproductive shades of death	K3
Fall prone the pale inhabitants come forth	L3
And happy in their unforeseen release	U2
From all the rigours of restraint enjoy	L2
The terrors of the day that sets them free	C2
Who then that has thee would not hold thee fast	I
Freedom whom they that lose thee so regret	I
That even a judgement making way for thee	C2
Seems in their eyes a mercy for thy sake	M3
	-
Such evil sin hath wrought and such a flame	N3
Kindled in heaven that it burns down to earth	T2
And in the furious inquest that it makes	U2
On God's behalf lays waste his fairest works	U2
The very elements though each be meant	I
The minister of man to serve his wants	U2
Conspire against him With his breath he draws	U2
A plague into his blood and cannot use	U2
Life's necessary means but he must die	I
Storms rise to o'erwhelm him or if stormy winds	U2
Rise not the waters of the deep shall rise	U2
And needing none assistance of the storm	O3
Shall roll themselves ashore and reach him there	D3
The earth shall shake him out of all his holds	U2
Or make his house his grave nor so content	I
Shall counterfeit the motions of the flood	I
And drown him in her dry and dusty gulfs	U2
What then were they the wicked above all	D2
And we the righteous whose fast anchored isle	P3
Moved not while theirs was rocked like a light skiff	Q3
The sport of every wave No none are clear	R3
And none than we more guilty But where all	D2
Stand chargeable with guilt and to the shafts	U2
Or wrath obnoxious God may choose his mark	S3
May punish if he please the less to warn	T3
The more malignant If he spared not them	U3
Tremble and be amazed at thine escape	V
Far guiltier England lest he spare not thee	C2
	-
Happy the man who sees a God employ'd	I
In all the good and ill that chequer life	V3
Resolving all events with their effects	U2
And manifold results into the will	W3
And arbitration wise of the Supreme	X3
Did not his eye rule all things and intend	I
The least of our concerns since from the least	I
The greatest oft originate could chance	U2
Find place in his dominion or dispose	U2
One lawless particle to thwart his plan	U
Then God might be surprised and unforeseen	Y3
Contingence might alarm him and disturb	Z3
The smooth and equal course of his affairs	U2
This truth Philosophy though eagle eyed	I
In natur's tendencies oft overlooks	U2
And having found his instrument forgets	U2
Or disregards or more presumptuous still	W3
Denies the power that wields it God proclaims	U2
His hot displeasure against foolish men	E2
That live an atheist life involves the heaven	Q
In tempests quits his grasp upon the winds	U2
And gives them all their fury bids a plague	A4
Kindle a fiery boil upon the skin	L
And putrefy the breath of blooming Health	W
He calls for Famine and the meagre fiend	I
Blows mildew from between his shrivell'd lips	U2
And taints the golden ear He springs his mines	U2
And desolates a nation at a blast	I

William Cowper

The Task: Book Ii. -- The Time-piece Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

About The Task: Book Ii. -- The Time-piece

Write your comment about The Task: Book Ii. -- The Time-piece poem by William Cowper

Recent Interactions*

New Poems

Popular Poets