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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON A TOO PROLIFIC ESSAYIST by WILLIAM WATSON

Poet Analysis

First Line: THE CRUELLEST TORTURE THAT A MAN CAN KNOW
Last Line: THE ETERNAL TRICKLE OF THIS BLAMELESS QUILL.
Subject(s): ESSAYS; WRITING & WRITERS;
THE cruellest torture that a man can know,
Passing all Torquemada's racks, is said
To be the ceaseless, measured, leisured, slow
Drip-drop of water on the victim's head.

Surely it were a torment like in kind,
If in degree less maddening, to sit still
Under the leakage of this good man's mind,
The eternal trickle of this blameless quill.



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