Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE BLACK STONES OF IONA, by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Here on their knees men swore: the stones were black Last Line: Come links for social order's awful chain. | ||||||||
HERE on their knees men swore: the stones were black, Black in the people's minds and words, yet they Were at that time, as now, in colour grey. But what is colour, if upon the rack Of conscience souls are placed by deeds that lack Concord with oaths? What differ night and day Then, when before the Perjured on his way Hell opens, and the heavens in vengeance crack Above his head uplifted in vain prayer To Saint, or Fiend, or to the Godhead whom He had insulted -- Peasant, King, or Thane? Fly where the culprit may, guilt meets a doom; And, from invisible worlds at need laid bare, Come links for social order's awful chain. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!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 |
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