The Task. Book Ii. The Timepiece Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLKMNOIPQR IIIIISTUIVWIXYZA2IZI B2C2D2IE2F2KI G2IH2I2J2K2L2VM2N2II O2IP2Q2M2IR2IS2T2U2V 2U2U2N2 W2IU2IX2U2Y2Z2U2A3IU 2U2B3U2IC3IU2IU2U2U2 D3E3T2U2F3U2U2IIG3H3 IE3IIU2DII3J3IK3VU2U 2B3L3M3U2L2C2IIC2N3 O3T2U2U2IU2U2U2IU2U2 P3D3U2IIU2D2Q3R3S3D2 U2T3U3V3VC2 IW3U2X3Y3IIU2U2UG3Z3 U2IU2U2X3U2E2QU2A4LW IU2U2IU2U2B4U2IU2S3U 2IIU2U2U2X3A2ID2 X3IIA2IIU2U2U2U2A2KC 4N3ID4F2U2N2U2E4KIF4 U2T3U2G4IG4UH4Z2A2QU 2VQA2X3A2I4IIU2IJ4K4 I IL4U2IIU2U2DU2U2I4DI U2DU2IIU2F2IA2Z2S2A2 II4X3IQ2 U2U2A2U2LX3IM4U2IIU2 IIIIUIDJ4J3U2C4IIIJ3 F2IDNU2U2N4IIA2IIU2U 2 IDA3IO4IU2U2IIU2U2P4 DIIU2S2IIU2O4DIDG3U2 DQ4IA2U2IZ2DU2U2IU2U 2DC2IR4DS4 A2W3T4U2IU2F2U2U2IU2 U2IIDIU4IZIU2U2V4 D2Z2U2P4DF2III3U2W4U 2E2A2VIIB4G3 UU2X4U3IY4A2G3IU2IU2 W3U2Z4DU2A2IIIE2U2IU 2U2IIC3IA2DX2U2IG3DD IINDA2DI UU2DR4DU2U2IVIIQ2U2U 2VU2F2 UU2IU2U2IDIG3W2DZ3DI U2X3ID U2A2C2IIU2IIIIIT2UU2 U2U2U2IX2Z2A4T3W3S2I IU2Z2W3DDU2IU2V4IIDI IIT2Z4I F2IIV4IIU2J4G3D2IT4I A2U2U2I4Y2A3IU2C2III W2I IU2C4P4U2U2U3U2IU2LI IU2U2DDIIII3DU2IIIII U2Z2W3QA2IIIU2U2IU2X 2F2U2DIG4J4U2U2U2U2I U2A3VU2IU2IY2U2IIQ3U 2D2U2DU2U2U2IIIDIIU2 VDDQIC2U2IIE2 U2Q2U2G3D4IDU2IIIW2D 2U2IU2IIU2U2U2E2U2U2 U2NU2U2 U2Z4DIDZ4IQ3IN2IC3T2 Z4IIIU2IIIU2QJ4J3U2I J3DZ4J4IIG3U2Z2IU2C2 J3U2IU2U2J4IIU2DG3U2 IIIN2U2A2U2U2U2IIIIJ 3U2U2U2IIII3V4II U2T2IU2U2IIDIIIDJ3C2 DA2IU2U4DU2 IDU2IIP4DIJ3 IU2IU2IDV4IU2II3A2G3 M3U2IJ3II

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 to 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
Fires 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 and 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
And fugitive in vain The sylvan scene	G3
Migrates uplifted and with all its soil	H3
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	I3
Possessed an inland scene Where now the throng	J3
That pressed the beach and hasty to depart	I
Looked to the sea for safety They are gone	K3
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	L3
Fall prone the pale inhabitants come forth	M3
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 judgment making way for thee	C2
Seems in their eyes a mercy for thy sake	N3
	-
Such evil sin hath wrought and such a flame	O3
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	P3
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	Q3
Moved not while theirs was rocked like a light skiff	R3
The sport of every wave No none are clear	S3
And none than we more guilty But where all	D2
Stand chargeable with guilt and to the shafts	U2
Of wrath obnoxious God may choose His mark	T3
May punish if He please the less to warn	U3
The more malignant If He spared not them	V3
Tremble and be amazed at thine escape	V
Far guiltier England lest He spare not thee	C2
	-
Happy the man who sees a God employed	I
In all the good and ill that chequer life	W3
Resolving all events with their effects	U2
And manifold results into the will	X3
And arbitration wise of the Supreme	Y3
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	G3
Contingence might alarm Him and disturb	Z3
The smooth and equal course of His affairs	U2
This truth philosophy though eagle eyed	I
In nature's tendencies oft overlooks	U2
And having found His instrument forgets	U2
Or disregards or more presumptuous still	X3
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 shrivelled lips	U2
And taints the golden ear He springs His mines	U2
And desolates a nation at a blast	I
Forth steps the spruce philosopher and tells	U2
Of homogeneal and discordant springs	U2
And principles of causes how they work	B4
By necessary laws their sure effects	U2
Of action and reaction He has found	I
The source of the disease that nature feels	U2
And bids the world take heart and banish fear	S3
Thou fool will thy discovery of the cause	U2
Suspend the effect or heal it Has not God	I
Still wrought by means since first He made the world	I
And did He not of old employ His means	U2
To drown it What is His creation less	U2
Than a capacious reservoir of means	U2
Formed for His use and ready at His will	X3
Go dress thine eyes with eye salve ask of Him	A2
Or ask of whomsoever He has taught	I
And learn though late the genuine cause of all	D2
	-
England with all thy faults I love thee still	X3
My country and while yet a nook is left	I
Where English minds and manners may be found	I
Shall be constrained to love thee Though thy clime	A2
Be fickle and thy year most part deformed	I
With dripping rains or withered by a frost	I
I would not yet exchange thy sullen skies	U2
And fields without a flower for warmer France	U2
With all her vines nor for Ausonia's groves	U2
Of golden fruitage and her myrtle bowers	U2
To shake thy senate and from heights sublime	A2
Of patriot eloquence to flash down fire	K
Upon thy foes was never meant my task	C4
But I can feel thy fortune and partake	N3
Thy joys and sorrows with as true a heart	I
As any thunderer there And I can feel	D4
Thy follies too and with a just disdain	F2
Frown at effeminates whose very looks	U2
Reflect dishonour on the land I love	N2
How in the name of soldiership and sense	U2
Should England prosper when such things as smooth	E4
And tender as a girl all essenced o'er	K
With odours and as profligate as sweet	I
Who sell their laurel for a myrtle wreath	F4
And love when they should fight when such as these	U2
Presume to lay their hand upon the ark	T3
Of her magnificent and awful cause	U2
Time was when it was praise and boast enough	G4
In every clime and travel where we might	I
That we were born her children Praise enough	G4
To fill the ambition of a private man	U
That Chatham's language was his mother tongue	H4
And Wolfe's great name compatriot with his own	Z2
Farewell those honours and farewell with them	A2
The hope of such hereafter They have fallen	Q
Each in his field of glory one in arms	U2
And one in council Wolfe upon the lap	V
Of smiling victory that moment won	Q
And Chatham heart sick of his country's shame	A2
They made us many soldiers Chatham still	X3
Consulting England's happiness at home	A2
Secured it by an unforgiving frown	I4
If any wronged her Wolfe where'er he fought	I
Put so much of his heart into his act	I
That his example had a magnet's force	U2
And all were swift to follow whom all loved	I
Those suns are set Oh rise some other such	J4
Or all that we have left is empty talk	K4
Of old achievements and despair of new	I
	-
Now hoist the sail and let the streamers float	I
Upon the wanton breezes Strew the deck	L4
With lavender and sprinkle liquid sweets	U2
That no rude savour maritime invade	I
The nose of nice nobility Breathe soft	I
Ye clarionets and softer still ye flutes	U2
That winds and waters lulled by magic sounds	U2
May bear us smoothly to the Gallic shore	D
True we have lost an empire let it pass	U2
True we may thank the perfidy of France	U2
That picked the jewel out of England's crown	I4
With all the cunning of an envious shrew	D
And let that pass 'twas but a trick of state	I
A brave man knows no malice but at once	U2
Forgets in peace the injuries of war	D
And gives his direst foe a friend's embrace	U2
And shamed as we have been to the very beard	I
Braved and defied and in our own sea proved	I
Too weak for those decisive blows that once	U2
Insured us mastery there we yet retain	F2
Some small pre eminence we justly boast	I
At least superior jockeyship and claim	A2
The honours of the turf as all our own	Z2
Go then well worthy of the praise ye seek	S2
And show the shame ye might conceal at home	A2
In foreign eyes be grooms and win the plate	I
Where once your nobler fathers won a crown	I4
'Tis generous to communicate your skill	X3
To those that need it Folly is soon learned	I
And under such preceptors who can fail	Q2
	-
There is a pleasure in poetic pains	U2
Which only poets know The shifts and turns	U2
The expedients and inventions multiform	A2
To which the mind resorts in chase of terms	U2
Though apt yet coy and difficult to win	L
To arrest the fleeting images that fill	X3
The mirror of the mind and hold them fast	I
And force them sit till he has pencilled off	M4
A faithful likeness of the forms he views	U2
Then to dispose his copies with such art	I
That each may find its most propitious light	I
And shine by situation hardly less	U2
Than by the labour and the skill it cost	I
Are occupations of the poet's mind	I
So pleasing and that steal away the thought	I
With such address from themes of sad import	I
That lost in his own musings happy man	U
He feels the anxieties of life denied	I
Their wonted entertainment all retire	D
Such joys has he that sings But ah not such	J4
Or seldom such the hearers of his song	J3
Fastidious or else listless or perhaps	U2
Aware of nothing arduous in a task	C4
They never undertook they little note	I
His dangers or escapes and haply find	I
There least amusement where he found the most	I
But is amusement all studious of song	J3
And yet ambitious not to sing in vain	F2
I would not trifle merely though the world	I
Be loudest in their praise who do no more	D
Yet what can satire whether grave or gay	N
It may correct a foible may chastise	U2
The freaks of fashion regulate the dress	U2
Retrench a sword blade or displace a patch	N4
But where are its sublimer trophies found	I
What vice has it subdued whose heart reclaimed	I
By rigour or whom laughed into reform	A2
Alas Leviathan is not so tamed	I
Laughed at he laughs again and stricken hard	I
Turns to the stroke his adamantine scales	U2
That fear no discipline of human hands	U2
	-
The pulpit therefore and I name it filled	I
With solemn awe that bids me well beware	D
With what intent I touch that holy thing	A3
The pulpit when the satirist has at last	I
Strutting and vapouring in an empty school	O4
Spent all his force and made no proselyte	I
I say the pulpit in the sober use	U2
Of its legitimate peculiar powers	U2
Must stand acknowledged while the world shall stand	I
The most important and effectual guard	I
Support and ornament of virtue's cause	U2
There stands the messenger of truth there stands	U2
The legate of the skies his theme divine	P4
His office sacred his credentials clear	D
By him the violated Law speaks out	I
Its thunders and by him in strains as sweet	I
As angels use the Gospel whispers peace	U2
He stablishes the strong restores the weak	S2
Reclaims the wanderer binds the broken heart	I
And armed himself in panoply complete	I
Of heavenly temper furnishes with arms	U2
Bright as his own and trains by every rule	O4
Of holy discipline to glorious war	D
The sacramental host of God's elect	I
Are all such teachers would to heaven all were	D
But hark the Doctor's voice fast wedged between	G3
Two empirics he stands and with swollen cheeks	U2
Inspires the news his trumpet Keener far	D
Than all invective is his bold harangue	Q4
While through that public organ of report	I
He hails the clergy and defying shame	A2
Announces to the world his own and theirs	U2
He teaches those to read whom schools dismissed	I
And colleges untaught sells accents tone	Z2
And emphasis in score and gives to prayer	D
The adagio and andante it demands	U2
He grinds divinity of other days	U2
Down into modern use transforms old print	I
To zigzag manuscript and cheats the eyes	U2
Of gallery critics by a thousand arts	U2
Are there who purchase of the Doctor's ware	D
Oh name it not in Gath it cannot be	C2
That grave and learned Clerks should need such aid	I
He doubtless is in sport and does but droll	R4
Assuming thus a rank unknown before	D
Grand caterer and dry nurse of the Church	S4
	-
I venerate the man whose heart is warm	A2
Whose hands are pure whose doctrine and whose life	W3
Coincident exhibit lucid proof	T4
That he is honest in the sacred cause	U2
To such I render more than mere respect	I
Whose actions say that they respect themselves	U2
But loose in morals and in manners vain	F2
In conversation frivolous in dress	U2
Extreme at once rapacious and profuse	U2
Frequent in park with lady at his side	I
Ambling and prattling scandal as he goes	U2
But rare at home and never at his books	U2
Or with his pen save when he scrawls a card	I
Constant at routs familiar with a round	I
Of ladyships a stranger to the poor	D
Ambitions of preferment for its gold	I
And well prepared by ignorance and sloth	U4
By infidelity and love o' the world	I
To make God's work a sinecure a slave	Z
To his own pleasures and his patron's pride	I
From such apostles O ye mitred heads	U2
Preserve the Church and lay not careless hands	U2
On skulls that cannot teach and will not learn	V4
	-
Would I describe a preacher such as Paul	D2
Were he on earth would hear approve and own	Z2
Paul should himself direct me I would trace	U2
His master strokes and draw from his design	P4
I would express him simple grave sincere	D
In doctrine uncorrupt in language plain	F2
And plain in manner decent solemn chaste	I
And natural in gesture much impressed	I
Himself as conscious of his awful charge	I3
And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds	U2
May feel it too affectionate in look	W4
And tender in address as well becomes	U2
A messenger of grace to guilty men	E2
Behold the picture Is it like Like whom	A2
The things that mount the rostrum with a skip	V
And then skip down again pronounce a text	I
Cry Hem and reading what they never wrote	I
Just fifteen minutes huddle up their work	B4
And with a well bred whisper close the scene	G3
	-
In man or woman but far most in man	U
And most of all in man that ministers	U2
And serves the altar in my soul I loathe	X4
All affectation 'Tis my perfect scorn	U3
Object of my implacable disgust	I
What will a man play tricks will he indulge	Y4
A silly fond conceit of his fair form	A2
And just proportion fashionable mien	G3
And pretty face in presence of his God	I
Or will he seek to dazzle me with tropes	U2
As with the diamond on his lily hand	I
And play his brilliant parts before my eyes	U2
When I am hungry for the Bread of Life	W3
He mocks his Maker prostitutes and shames	U2
His noble office and instead of truth	Z4
Displaying his own beauty starves his flock
Therefore avaunt all attitude and stare	D
And start theatric practised at the glass	U2
I seek divine simplicity in him	A2
Who handles things divine and all beside	I
Though learned with labour and though much admired	I
By curious eyes and judgments ill informed	I
To me is odious as the nasal twang
Heard at conventicle where worthy men	E2
Misled by custom strain celestial themes	U2
Through the prest nostril spectacle bestrid	I
Some decent in demeanour while they preach
That task performed relapse into themselves	U2
And having spoken wisely at the close	U2
Grow wanton and give proof to every eye	I
Whoe'er was edified themselves were not	I
Forth comes the pocket mirror First we stroke	C3
An eyebrow next compose a straggling lock
Then with an air most gracefully performed	I
Fall back into our seat extend an arm	A2
And lay it at its ease with gentle care	D
With handkerchief in hand depending low	X2
The better hand more busy gives the nose	U2
Its bergamot or aids the indebted eye	I
With opera glass to watch the moving scene	G3
And recognise the slow retiring fair	D
Now this is fulsome and offends me more	D
Than in a Churchman slovenly neglect	I
And rustic coarseness would A heavenly mind	I
May be indifferent to her house of clay	N
And slight the hovel as beneath her care	D
But how a body so fantastic trim	A2
And quaint in its deportment and attire	D
Can lodge a heavenly mind demands a doubt	I
	-
He that negotiates between God and man	U
As God's ambassador the grand concerns	U2
Of judgment and of mercy should beware	D
Of lightness in his speech 'Tis pitiful
To court a grin when you should woo a soul	R4
To break a jest when pity would inspire	D
Pathetic exhortation and to address	U2
The skittish fancy with facetious tales	U2
When sent with God's commission to the heart	I
So did not Paul Direct me to a quip	V
Or merry turn in all he ever wrote	I
And I consent you take it for your text	I
Your only one till sides and benches fail	Q2
No he was serious in a serious cause	U2
And understood too well the weighty terms	U2
That he had ta'en in charge He would not stoop	V
To conquer those by jocular exploits	U2
Whom truth and soberness assailed in vain	F2
	-
Oh popular applause what heart of man	U
Is proof against thy sweet seducing charms	U2
The wisest and the best feel urgent need	I
Of all their caution in thy gentlest gales	U2
But swelled into a gust who then alas	U2
With all his canvas set and inexpert	I
And therefore heedless can withstand thy power	D
Praise from the riveled lips of toothless bald	I
Decrepitude and in the looks of lean	G3
And craving poverty and in the bow	W2
Respectful of the smutched artificer	D
Is oft too welcome and may much disturb	Z3
The bias of the purpose How much more	D
Poured forth by beauty splendid and polite	I
In language soft as adoration breathes	U2
Ah spare your idol think him human still	X3
Charms he may have but he has frailties too	I
Dote not too much nor spoil what ye admire	D
	-
All truth is from the sempiternal source	U2
Of light divine But Egypt Greece and Rome	A2
Drew from the stream below More favoured we	C2
Drink when we choose it at the fountain head	I
To them it flowed much mingled and defiled	I
With hurtful error prejudice and dreams	U2
Illusive of philosophy so called	I
But falsely Sages after sages strove
In vain to filter off a crystal draught	I
Pure from the lees which often more enhanced	I
The thirst than slaked it and not seldom bred	I
Intoxication and delirium wild	I
In vain they pushed inquiry to the birth	T2
And spring time of the world asked Whence is man	U
Why formed at all and wherefore as he is	U2
Where must he find his Maker With what rites	U2
Adore Him Will He hear accept and bless	U2
Or does He sit regardless of His works	U2
Has man within him an immortal seed	I
Or does the tomb take all If he survive
His ashes where and in what weal or woe	X2
Knots worthy of solution which alone	Z2
A Deity could solve Their answers vague	A4
And all at random fabulous and dark	T3
Left them as dark themselves Their rules of life	W3
Defective and unsanctioned proved too weak	S2
To bind the roving appetite and lead	I
Blind nature to a God not yet revealed	I
'Tis Revelation satisfies all doubts	U2
Explains all mysteries except her own	Z2
And so illuminates the path of life	W3
That fools discover it and stray no more	D
Now tell me dignified and sapient sir	D
My man of morals nurtured in the shades	U2
Of Academus is this false or true	I
Is Christ the abler teacher or the schools	U2
If Christ then why resort at every turn	V4
To Athens or to Rome for wisdom short	I
Of man's occasions when in Him reside	I
Grace knowledge comfort an unfathomed store	D
How oft when Paul has served us with a text	I
Has Epictetus Plato Tully preached	I
Men that if now alive would sit content	I
And humble learners of a Saviour's worth	T2
Preach it who might Such was their love of truth	Z4
Their thirst of knowledge and their candour too	I
	-
And thus it is The pastor either vain	F2
By nature or by flattery made so taught	I
To gaze at his own splendour and to exalt	I
Absurdly not his office but himself
Or unenlightened and too proud to learn	V4
Or vicious and not therefore apt to teach
Perverting often by the stress of lewd	I
And loose example whom he should instruct	I
Exposes and holds up to broad disgrace	U2
The noblest function and discredits much	J4
The brightest truths that man has ever seen	G3
For ghostly counsel if it either fall	D2
Below the exigence or be not backed	I
With show of love at least with hopeful proof	T4
Of some sincerity on the giver's part	I
Or be dishonoured in the exterior form	A2
And mode of its conveyance by such tricks	U2
As move derision or by foppish airs	U2
And histrionic mummery that let down	I4
The pulpit to the level of the stage	Y2
Drops from the lips a disregarded thing	A3
The weak perhaps are moved but are not taught	I
While prejudice in men of stronger minds	U2
Takes deeper root confirmed by what they see	C2
A relaxation of religion's hold	I
Upon the roving and untutored heart	I
Soon follows and the curb of conscience snapt	I
The laity run wild But do they now	W2
Note their extravagance and be convinced	I
	-
As nations ignorant of God contrive
A wooden one so we no longer taught	I
By monitors that Mother Church supplies	U2
Now make our own Posterity will ask	C4
If e'er posterity sees verse of mine	P4
Some fifty or a hundred lustrums hence	U2
What was a monitor in George's days	U2
My very gentle reader yet unborn	U3
Of whom I needs must augur better things	U2
Since Heaven would sure grow weary of a world	I
Productive only of a race like us	U2
A monitor is wood plank shaven thin	L
We wear it at our backs There closely braced	I
And neatly fitted it compresses hard	I
The prominent and most unsightly bones	U2
And binds the shoulders flat We prove its use	U2
Sovereign and most effectual to secure	D
A form not now gymnastic as of yore	D
From rickets and distortion else our lot	I
But thus admonished we can walk erect	I
One proof at least of manhood while the friend	I
Sticks close a Mentor worthy of his charge	I3
Our habits costlier than Lucullus wore	D
And by caprice as multiplied as his	U2
Just please us while the fashion is at full
But change with every moon The sycophant	I
That waits to dress us arbitrates their date	I
Surveys his fair reversion with keen eye	I
Finds one ill made another obsolete	I
This fits not nicely that is ill conceived	I
And making prize of all that he condemns	U2
With our expenditure defrays his own	Z2
Variety's the very spice of life	W3
That gives it all its flavour We have run	Q
Through every change that fancy at the loom	A2
Exhausted has had genius to supply	I
And studious of mutation still discard	I
A real elegance a little used	I
For monstrous novelty and strange disguise	U2
We sacrifice to dress till household joys	U2
And comforts cease Dress drains our cellar dry	I
And keeps our larder lean puts out our fires	U2
And introduces hunger frost and woe	X2
Where peace and hospitality might reign	F2
What man that lives and that knows how to live
Would fail to exhibit at the public shows	U2
A form as splendid as the proudest there	D
Though appetite raise outcries at the cost	I
A man o' the town dines late but soon enough	G4
With reasonable forecast and despatch	J4
To ensure a side box station at half price	U2
You think perhaps so delicate his dress	U2
His daily fare as delicate Alas	U2
He picks clean teeth and busy as he seems	U2
With an old tavern quill is hungry yet	I
The rout is folly's circle which she draws	U2
With magic wand So potent is the spell
That none decoyed into that fatal ring	A3
Unless by Heaven's peculiar grace escape	V
There we grow early gray but never wise	U2
There form connections and acquire no friend	I
Solicit pleasure hopeless of success	U2
Waste youth in occupations only fit	I
For second childhood and devote old age	Y2
To sports which only childhood could excuse	U2
There they are happiest who dissemble best	I
Their weariness and they the most polite	I
Who squander time and treasure with a smile	Q3
Though at their own destruction She that asks	U2
Her dear five hundred friends contemns them all	D2
And hates their coming They what can they less	U2
Make just reprisals and with cringe and shrug
And bow obsequious hide their hate of her	D
All catch the frenzy downward from her Grace	U2
Whose flambeaux flash against the morning skies	U2
And gild our chamber ceilings as they pass	U2
To her who frugal only that her thrift	I
May feed excesses she can ill afford	I
Is hackneyed home unlackeyed who in haste	I
Alighting turns the key in her own door	D
And at the watchman's lantern borrowing light	I
Finds a cold bed her only comfort left	I
Wives beggar husbands husbands starve their wives	U2
On Fortune's velvet altar offering up	V
Their last poor pittance Fortune most severe	D
Of goddesses yet known and costlier far	D
Than all that held their routs in Juno's heaven	Q
So fare we in this prison house the world	I
And 'tis a fearful spectacle to see	C2
So many maniacs dancing in their chains	U2
They gaze upon the links that hold them fast	I
With eyes of anguish execrate their lot	I
Then shake them in despair and dance again	E2
	-
Now basket up the family of plagues	U2
That waste our vitals Peculation sale	Q2
Of honour perjury corruption frauds	U2
By forgery by subterfuge of law
By tricks and lies as numerous and as keen	G3
As the necessities their authors feel	D4
Then cast them closely bundled every brat	I
At the right door Profusion is its sire	D
Profusion unrestrained with all that's base	U2
In character has littered all the land	I
And bred within the memory of no few	I
A priesthood such as Baal's was of old	I
A people such as never was till now	W2
It is a hungry vice it eats up all	D2
That gives society its beauty strength
Convenience and security and use	U2
Makes men mere vermin worthy to be trapped	I
And gibbeted as fast as catchpole claws	U2
Can seize the slippery prey unties the knot	I
Of union and converts the sacred band	I
That holds mankind together to a scourge
Profusion deluging a state with lusts	U2
Of grossest nature and of worst effects	U2
Prepares it for its ruin hardens blinds	U2
And warps the consciences of public men	E2
Till they can laugh at virtue mock the fools	U2
That trust them and in the end disclose a face	U2
That would have shocked credulity herself
Unmasked vouchsafing this their sole excuse	U2
Since all alike are selfish why not they	N
This does Profusion and the accursed cause	U2
Of such deep mischief has itself a cause	U2
	-
In colleges and halls in ancient days	U2
When learning virtue piety and truth	Z4
Were precious and inculcated with care	D
There dwelt a sage called Discipline His head	I
Not yet by time completely silvered o'er	D
Bespoke him past the bounds of freakish youth	Z4
But strong for service still and unimpaired	I
His eye was meek and gentle and a smile	Q3
Played on his lips and in his speech was heard	I
Paternal sweetness dignity and love	N2
The occupation dearest to his heart	I
Was to encourage goodness He would stroke	C3
The head of modest and ingenuous worth	T2
That blushed at its own praise and press the youth	Z4
Close to his side that pleased him Learning grew	I
Beneath his care a thriving vigorous plant	I
The mind was well informed the passions held	I
Subordinate and diligence was choice	U2
If e'er it chanced as sometimes chance it must	I
That one among so many overleaped	I
The limits of control his gentle eye	I
Grew stern and darted a severe rebuke
His frown was full of terror and his voice	U2
Shook the delinquent with such fits of awe
As left him not till penitence had won	Q
Lost favour back again and closed the breach	J4
But Discipline a faithful servant long	J3
Declined at length into the vale of years	U2
A palsy struck his arm his sparkling eye	I
Was quenched in rheums of age his voice unstrung	J3
Grew tremulous and moved derision more	D
Than reverence in perverse rebellious youth	Z4
So colleges and halls neglected much	J4
Their good old friend and Discipline at length
O'erlooked and unemployed fell sick and died	I
Then study languished emulation slept	I
And virtue fled The schools became a scene	G3
Of solemn farce where ignorance in stilts	U2
His cap well lined with logic not his own	Z2
With parrot tongue performed the scholar's part	I
Proceeding soon a graduated dunce	U2
Then compromise had place and scrutiny	C2
Became stone blind precedence went in truck	J3
And he was competent whose purse was so	U2
A dissolution of all bonds ensued	I
The curbs invented for the mulish mouth
Of headstrong youth were broken bars and bolts	U2
Grew rusty by disuse and massy gates	U2
Forgot their office opening with a touch	J4
Till gowns at length are found mere masquerade	I
The tasselled cap and the spruce band a jest	I
A mockery of the world What need of these	U2
For gamesters jockeys brothellers impure	D
Spendthrifts and booted sportsmen oftener seen	G3
With belted waist and pointers at their heels	U2
Than in the bounds of duty What was learned	I
If aught was learned in childhood is forgot	I
And such expense as pinches parents blue	I
And mortifies the liberal hand of love	N2
Is squandered in pursuit of idle sports	U2
And vicious pleasures buys the boy a name	A2
That sits a stigma on his father's house	U2
And cleaves through life inseparably close	U2
To him that wears it What can after games	U2
Of riper joys and commerce with the world	I
The lewd vain world that must receive him soon
Add to such erudition thus acquired	I
Where science and where virtue are professed	I
They may confirm his habits rivet fast	I
His folly but to spoil him is a task	J3
That bids defiance to the united powers	U2
Of fashion dissipation taverns stews	U2
Now blame we most the nurselings or the nurse	U2
The children crooked and twisted and deformed	I
Through want of care or her whose winking eye	I
And slumbering oscitancy mars the brood	I
The nurse no doubt Regardless of her charge	I3
She needs herself correction needs to learn	V4
That it is dangerous sporting with the world	I
With things so sacred as a nation's trust	I
The nurture of her youth her dearest pledge
	-
All are not such I had a brother once	U2
Peace to the memory of a man of worth	T2
A man of letters and of manners too	I
Of manners sweet as virtue always wears	U2
When gay good nature dresses her in smiles	U2
He graced a college in which order yet	I
Was sacred and was honoured loved and wept	I
By more than one themselves conspicuous there	D
Some minds are tempered happily and mixt	I
With such ingredients of good sense and taste	I
Of what is excellent in man they thirst	I
With such a zeal to be what they approve
That no restraints can circumscribe them more	D
Than they themselves by choice for wisdom's sake	J3
Nor can example hurt them What they see	C2
Of vice in others but enhancing more	D
The charms of virtue in their just esteem	A2
If such escape contagion and emerge
Pure from so foul a pool to shine abroad	I
And give the world their talents and themselves	U2
Small thanks to those whose negligence or sloth	U4
Exposed their inexperience to the snare	D
And left them to an undirected choice	U2
	-
See then the quiver broken and decayed	I
In which are kept our arrows Rusting there	D
In wild disorder and unfit for use	U2
What wonder if discharged into the world	I
They shame their shooters with a random flight	I
Their points obtuse and feathers drunk with wine	P4
Well may the Church wage unsuccessful war	D
With such artillery armed Vice parries wide	I
The undreaded volley with a sword of straw
And stands an impudent and fearless mark	J3
	-
Have we not tracked the felon home and found	I
His birthplace and his dam The country mourns	U2
Mourns because every plague that can infest	I
Society that saps and worms the base	U2
Of the edifice that Policy has raised	I
Swarms in all quarters meets the eye the ear	D
And suffocates the breath at every turn	V4
Profusion breeds them And the cause itself
Of that calamitous mischief has been found	I
Found too where most offensive in the skirts	U2
Of the robed pedagogue Else let the arraigned	I
Stand up unconscious and refute the charge	I3
So when the Jewish leader stretched his arm	A2
And waved his rod divine a race obscene	G3
Spawned in the muddy beds of Nile came forth	M3
Polluting Egypt Gardens fields and plains	U2
Were covered with the pest The streets were filled	I
The croaking nuisance lurked in every nook	J3
Nor palaces nor even chambers 'scaped	I
And the land stank so numerous was the fry	I

William Cowper

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