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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


AT THE CONVENT OF CAMALDOLI (CONTINUED) by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Poet Analysis

First Line: THE WORLD FORESAKEN, ALL ITS BUSY CARES
Last Line: GIVE HIM A SOUL THAT CLEAVETH UNTO THEE.
Subject(s): CONVENTS; ITALY; ITALIANS;

THE world forsaken, all its busy cares
And stirring interests shunned with desperate flight,
All trust abandoned in the healing might
Of virtuous action; all that courage dares,
Labour accomplishes, or patience bears --
Those helps rejected, they, whose minds perceive
How subtly works man's weakness, sighs may heave
For such a One beset with cloistral snares.
Father of Mercy! rectify his view,
If with his vows this object ill agree;
Shed over it thy grace, and thus subdue
Imperious passion in a heart set free: --
That earthly love may to herself be true,
Give him a soul that cleaveth unto thee.




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