The foolish man, by flesh and fancy led, His guilty heart with this fond thought hath fed, There is no God that reigneth. And so thereafter he and all his mates Do works which earth corrupt and heaven hates, Not one that good remaineth. Even God Himself sent down His piercing eye If of this clayey race He could espy One that His wisdom learneth. And, lo, He finds that all astraying went, And plunged in stinking filth, not one well bent, Not one, that God discerneth. O madness of these folks, thus loosely led, These cannibals, who as if they were bread God's people do devouer, Nor ever call on God, but they shall quake More than they now do brag when He shall take The just into His power. Indeed the poor oppressed by you, you mock, Their councils are your common jesting stock, But God is their recomfort. Ah, when from Sion shall the saver come, That Jacob, freed by Thee, may glad become, And Israel full of comfort? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OUTIDANA: A DIRGE by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES A FRAGMENT by GEORGE GORDON BYRON BOADICEA; AN ODE by WILLIAM COWPER ECHO [OR, ECHOES] by THOMAS MOORE SONNET: 53 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE A SATIRE [OR, SATYR] AGAINST MANKIND by JOHN WILMOT LONDON, 1802 (1) by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH THE MOUNTAIN TOMB: 1. TO A CHILD DANCING IN THE WIND by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS |