Part II. To the close of the Troubles in the Reign of Charles I
How soon, alas! did Man, created pure
By Angels guarded, deviate from the line
Prescribed to duty: woeful forfeiture
He made by willful breach of law divine.
With like perverseness did the Church abjure
Obedience to her Lord, and haste to twine,
'Mid Heaven-born flowers that shall for aye endure,
Weeds on whose front the world had fixed her sign.
O Man, if with thy trials thus it fares,
If good can smooth the way to evil choice,
From all rash censure be the mind kept free;
He only judges right who weighs, compares,
And in the sternest sentence which his voice
Pronounces, ne'er abandons Charity.
Ecclesiastical Sonnets - Part Ii. - I - How Soon, Alas!
William Wordsworth
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Poem topics: evil, heaven, world, voice, good, mind, pure, choice, duty, endure, church, divine, sentence, Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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