Verses Selected From An Occasional Poem Entitled "valediction." Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGHIIJJKK LMGHNNOOPPNNJJQQRRSS TTAAUUVVTT| O Friendship cordial of the human breast | A |
| So little felt so fervently profess'd | A |
| Thy blossoms deck our unsuspecting years | B |
| The promise of delicious fruit appears | B |
| We hug the hopes of constancy and truth | C |
| Such is the folly of our dreaming youth | C |
| But soon alas detect the rash mistake | D |
| That sanguine inexperience loves to make | D |
| And view with tears the expected harvest lost | E |
| Decay'd by time or wither'd by a frost | E |
| Whoever undertakes a friend's great part | F |
| Should be renew'd in nature pure in heart | F |
| Prepared for martyrdom and strong to prove | G |
| A thousand ways the force of genuine love | H |
| He may be call'd to give up health and gain | I |
| To exchange content for trouble ease for pain | I |
| To echo sigh for sigh and groan for groan | J |
| And wet his cheeks with sorrows not his own | J |
| The heart of man for such a task too frail | K |
| When most relied on is most sure to fail | K |
| And summon'd to partake its fellow's woe | L |
| Starts from its office like a broken bow | M |
| Votaries of business and of pleasure prove | G |
| Faithless alike in friendship and in love | H |
| Retired from all the circles of the gay | N |
| And all the crowds that bustle life away | N |
| To scenes where competition envy strife | O |
| Beget no thunder clouds to trouble life | O |
| Let me the charge of some good angel find | P |
| One who has known and has escaped mankind | P |
| Polite yet virtuous who has brought away | N |
| The manners not the morals of the day | N |
| With him perhaps with her for men have known | J |
| No firmer friendships than the fair have shown | J |
| Let me enjoy in some unthought of spot | Q |
| All former friends forgiven and forgot | Q |
| Down to the close of life's fast fading scene | R |
| Union of hearts without a flaw between | R |
| 'Tis grace 'tis bounty and it calls for praise | S |
| If God give health that sunshine of our days | S |
| And if he add a blessing shared by few | T |
| Content of heart more praises still are due | T |
| But if he grant a friend that boon possess'd | A |
| Indeed is treasure and crowns all the rest | A |
| And giving one whose heart is in the skies | U |
| Born from above and made divinely wise | U |
| He gives what bankrupt nature never can | V |
| Whose noblest coin is light and brittle man | V |
| Gold purer far than Ophir ever knew | T |
| A soul an image of himself and therefore true | T |
William Cowper
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
<< To My Cousin, Anne Bodham, On Receiving From Her A Network Purse Made By Herself Poem
On A Similar Occasion. For The Year 1789 Poem>>
Write your comment about Verses Selected From An Occasional Poem Entitled "valediction." poem by William Cowper
Best Poems of William Cowper