Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS: PART 1: 21. SECLUSION, by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS: PART 1: 21. SECLUSION, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Lance, shield, and sword relinquished
Last Line: For recompence -- their own perennial bower.


LANCE, shield, and sword relinquished, at his side
A bead-roll, in his hand a clasped book,
Or staff more harmless than a shepherd's crook,
The war-worn Chieftain quits the world -- to hide
His thin autumnal locks where Monks abide
In cloistered privacy. But not to dwell
In soft repose he comes: within his cell,
Round the decaying trunk of human pride,
At morn, and eve, and midnight's silent hour,
Do penitential cogitations cling;
Like ivy, round some ancient elm, they twine
In grisly folds and strictures serpentine;
Yet, while they strangle, a fair growth they bring,
For recompence -- their own perennial bower.






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