(TO THE CLOSE OF THE TROUBLES IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I) HOW soon -- alas! did Man, created pure -- By Angels guarded, deviate from the line Prescribed to duty: -- woeful forfeiture He made by wilful breach of law divine. With like perverseness did the Church abjure Obedience to her Lord, and haste to twine, 'Mid Heaven-born flowers that shall for aye endure, Weeds on whose front the world had fixed her sign. O Man, -- if with thy trials thus it fares, If good can smooth the way to evil choice, From all rash censure be the mind kept free; He only judges right who weighs, compares, And in the sternest sentence which his voice Pronounces, ne'er abandons Charity. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...I AM BORNE ONWARD by SARA TEASDALE TO MARK ANTHONY IN HEAVEN by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS MY AIN COUNTREE by ALLAN CUNNINGHAM THE BEGGAR MAID [AND KING COPHETUA] by ALFRED TENNYSON THE TENDER HUSBAND: PROLOGUE by JOSEPH ADDISON |