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

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLKMNOIPQR IIIIISTUIVWIXYZA2IZI B2C2D2IE2F2KI G2IH2I2J2K2L2VM2N2II O2IP2Q2M2IR2IS2T2U2V 2U2U2N2 W2IU2IX2U2Y2Z2U2A3IU 2U2B3U2IC3IU2IU2U2U2 D3E3T2U2F3U2U2IIG3IE 3IIU2DIH3I3IJ3VU2U2B 3K3L3U2L2C2IIC2M3 N3T2U2U2IU2U2U2IU2U2 O3D3U2IIU2D2P3Q3R3D2 U2S3T3U3VC2 IV3U2W3X3IIU2U2UY3Z3 U2IU2U2W3U2E2QU2A4LW IU2U2I

Oh for a lodge in some vast wildernessA
Some boundless contiguity of shadeB
Where rumour of oppression and deceitC
Of unsuccessful or successful warD
Might never reach me more My ear is painedE
My soul is sick with every day's reportF
Of wrong and outrage with which earth is filledG
There is no flesh in man's obdurate heartH
It does not feel for man The natural bondI
Of brotherhood is severed as the flaxJ
That falls asunder at the touch of fireK
He finds his fellow guilty of a skinL
Not coloured like his own and having powerK
To enforce the wrong for such a worthy causeM
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful preyN
Lands intersected by a narrow frithO
Abhor each other Mountains interposedI
Make enemies of nations who had elseP
Like kindred drops been mingled into oneQ
Thus man devotes his brother and destroysR
And worse than all and most to be deploredI
As human nature's broadest foulest blotI
Chains him and tasks him and exacts his sweatI
With stripes that mercy with a bleeding heartI
Weeps when she sees inflicted on a beastI
Then what is man And what man seeing thisS
And having human feelings does not blushT
And hang his head to think himself a manU
I would not have a slave to till my groundI
To carry me to fan me while I sleepV
And tremble when I wake for all the wealthW
That sinews bought and sold have ever earnedI
No dear as freedom is and in my heart'sX
Just estimation prized above all priceY
I had much rather be myself the slaveZ
And wear the bonds than fasten them on himA2
We have no slaves at home Then why abroadI
And they themselves once ferried o'er the waveZ
That parts us are emancipate and loosedI
Slaves cannot breathe in England if their lungsB2
Receive our air that moment they are freeC2
They touch our country and their shackles fallD2
That's noble and bespeaks a nation proudI
And jealous of the blessing Spread it thenE2
And let it circulate through every veinF2
Of all your empire that where Britain's powerK
Is felt mankind may feel her mercy tooI
-
Sure there is need of social intercourseG2
Benevolence and peace and mutual aidI
Between the nations in a world that seemsH2
To toll the death bell of its own deceaseI2
And by the voice of all its elementsJ2
To preach the general doom When were the windsK2
Let slip with such a warrant to destroyL2
When did the waves so haughtily o'erleapV
Their ancient barriers deluging the dryM2
Fire from beneath and meteors from aboveN2
Portentous unexampled unexplainedI
Have kindled beacons in the skies and the oldI
And crazy earth has had her shaking fitsO2
More frequent and foregone her usual restI
Is it a time to wrangle when the propsP2
And pillars of our planet seem to failQ2
And nature with a dim and sickly eyeM2
To wait the close of all But grant her endI
More distant adn that prophecy demandsR2
A longer respite unaccomplished yetI
Still they are frowning signals and bespeakS2
Displeasure in his breast who smites the earthT2
Or heals it makes it languish or rejoiceU2
And 'tis but seemly that where all deserveV2
And stand exposed by common peccancyU2
To what no few have felt there should be peaceU2
And brethren in calamity should loveN2
-
Alas for Sicily rude fragments nowW2
Lie scattered where the shapely column stoodI
Her palaces are dust In all her streetsU2
The voice of singing and the sprightly chordI
Are silent Revelry and dance and showX2
Suffer a syncope and solemn pauseU2
While God performs upon the trembling stageY2
Of his own works his dreadful part aloneZ2
How does the earth receive him with what signsU2
Of gratulation and delight her kingA3
Pours she not all her choicest fruits abroadI
Her sweetest flowers her aromatic gumsU2
Disclosing paradise where'er he treadsU2
She quakes at his approach Her hollow wombB3
Conceiving thunders through a thousand deepsU2
And fiery caverns roars beneath his footI
The hills move lightly and the mountains smokeC3
For He has touched them From the extremest pointI
Of elevation down into the abyssU2
His wrath is busy and his frown is feltI
The rocks fall headlong and the valleys riseU2
The rivers die into offensive poolsU2
And charged with putrid verdure breathe a grossU2
And mortal nuisance into all the airD3
What solid was by transformation strangeE3
Grows fluid and the fixed and rooted earthT2
Tormented into billows heaves and swellsU2
Or with vortiginous and hideous whirlF3
Sucks down its prey insatiable ImmenseU2
The tumult and the overthrow the pangsU2
And agonies of human and of bruteI
Multitudes fugitive on every sideI
Migrates uplifted and with all its soilG3
Alighting in far distant fields finds outI
A new possessor and survives the changeE3
Ocean has caught the frenzy and upwroughtI
To an enormous and o'erbearing heightI
Not by a mighty wind but by that voiceU2
Which winds and waves obey invades the shoreD
Resistless Never such a sudden floodI
Upridged so high and sent on such a chargeH3
Possessed an inland scene Where now the throngI3
That pressed the beach and hasty to departI
Looked to the sea for safety They are goneJ3
Gone with the refluent wave into the deepV
A prince with half his people Ancient towersU2
And roofs embattled high the gloomy scenesU2
Where beauty oft and lettered worth consumeB3
Life in the unproductive shades of deathK3
Fall prone the pale inhabitants come forthL3
And happy in their unforeseen releaseU2
From all the rigours of restraint enjoyL2
The terrors of the day that sets them freeC2
Who then that has thee would not hold thee fastI
Freedom whom they that lose thee so regretI
That even a judgement making way for theeC2
Seems in their eyes a mercy for thy sakeM3
-
Such evil sin hath wrought and such a flameN3
Kindled in heaven that it burns down to earthT2
And in the furious inquest that it makesU2
On God's behalf lays waste his fairest worksU2
The very elements though each be meantI
The minister of man to serve his wantsU2
Conspire against him With his breath he drawsU2
A plague into his blood and cannot useU2
Life's necessary means but he must dieI
Storms rise to o'erwhelm him or if stormy windsU2
Rise not the waters of the deep shall riseU2
And needing none assistance of the stormO3
Shall roll themselves ashore and reach him thereD3
The earth shall shake him out of all his holdsU2
Or make his house his grave nor so contentI
Shall counterfeit the motions of the floodI
And drown him in her dry and dusty gulfsU2
What then were they the wicked above allD2
And we the righteous whose fast anchored isleP3
Moved not while theirs was rocked like a light skiffQ3
The sport of every wave No none are clearR3
And none than we more guilty But where allD2
Stand chargeable with guilt and to the shaftsU2
Or wrath obnoxious God may choose his markS3
May punish if he please the less to warnT3
The more malignant If he spared not themU3
Tremble and be amazed at thine escapeV
Far guiltier England lest he spare not theeC2
-
Happy the man who sees a God employ'dI
In all the good and ill that chequer lifeV3
Resolving all events with their effectsU2
And manifold results into the willW3
And arbitration wise of the SupremeX3
Did not his eye rule all things and intendI
The least of our concerns since from the leastI
The greatest oft originate could chanceU2
Find place in his dominion or disposeU2
One lawless particle to thwart his planU
Then God might be surprised and unforeseenY3
Contingence might alarm him and disturbZ3
The smooth and equal course of his affairsU2
This truth Philosophy though eagle eyedI
In natur's tendencies oft overlooksU2
And having found his instrument forgetsU2
Or disregards or more presumptuous stillW3
Denies the power that wields it God proclaimsU2
His hot displeasure against foolish menE2
That live an atheist life involves the heavenQ
In tempests quits his grasp upon the windsU2
And gives them all their fury bids a plagueA4
Kindle a fiery boil upon the skinL
And putrefy the breath of blooming HealthW
He calls for Famine and the meagre fiendI
Blows mildew from between his shrivell'd lipsU2
And taints the golden ear He springs his minesU2
And desolates a nation at a blastI

William Cowper



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