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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS: PART 2: 19. ABUSE OF MONASTIC POWER, by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH Poet Analysis Poet's Biography
First Line: And what is penance with her knotted thong
Last Line: Who on the good of others builds his own!
First Line: And what is penance with her knotted thong
Last Line: Who on the good of others builds his own!
AND what is Penance with her knotted thong;
Mortification with the shirt of hair,
Wan cheek, and knees indurated with prayer,
Vigils, and fastings rigorous as long;
If cloistered Avarice scruple not to wrong
The pious, humble, useful Secular,
And rob the people of his daily care,
Scorning that world whose blindness makes her strong?
Inversion strange! that, unto One who lives
For self, and struggles with himself alone,
The amplest share of heavenly favour gives;
That to a Monk allots, both in the esteem
Of God and man, place higher than to him
Who on the good of others builds his own!
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Other Poems of Interest...
A JEWISH FAMILY; IN A SMALL VALLEY OPPOSITE ST. GOAR by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
ADMONITION [TO A TRAVELLER] by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
AN APRIL MORNING by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
ANECDOTE FOR FATHERS by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
ANIMAL TRANQUILITY AND DECAY; A SKETCH by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
AT FLORENCE by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
AT THE GRAVE OF BURNS; SEVEN YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
BUONAPARTE by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
COMPOSED AT NEIDPATH CASTLE, 1803 by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
COMPOSED BY THE SEA-SIDE NEAR CALAIS [AUGUST 1802] by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH