William Cowper (Уильям Купер)

Human Frailty

Weak and irresolute is man;
The purpose of to-day,
Woven with pains into his plan,
To-morrow rends away.

The bow well bent, and smart the spring,
Vice seems already slain;
But passion rudely snaps the string,
And it revives again.

Some foe to his upright intent
Finds out his weaker part;
Virtue engages his assent,
But Pleasure wins his heart.

‘Tis here the folly of the wise
Through all his art we view;
And, while his tongue the charge denies,
His conscience owns it true.

Bound on a voyage of awful length
And dangers little known,
A stranger to superior strength,
Man vainly trusts his own.

But oars alone can ne’er prevail
To reach the distant coast;
The breath of Heaven must swell the sail,
Or all the toil is lost. 

1. A Figurative Description of the Procedure of Divine Love
2. No Sorrow Peculiar to the Sufferer
3. The Doves
4. The Glowworm
5. Joy in Martyrdom

Распечатать (To print)

Количество обращений к стихотворению: 1716

Последние стихотворения

To English version