Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WRITTEN UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF DELIRIUM, by WILLIAM COWPER



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WRITTEN UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF DELIRIUM, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Hatred and vengeance, my eternal portion
Last Line: Buried above ground.
Variant Title(s): Lines Written During A Period Of Insanity;lines Written Under The Influence Of Delirium
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


HATRED and vengeance,--my eternal portion
Scarce can endure delay of execution,--
Wait with impatient readiness to seize my
Soul in a moment.

Damned below Judas; more abhorred than he was,
Who for a few pence sold his holy Master!
Twice-betrayed Jesus me, the last delinquent,
Deems the profanest.

Man disavows, and Deity disowns me,
Hell might afford my miseries a shelter;
Therefore, Hell keeps her ever-hungry mouths all
Bolted against me.

Hard lot! encompassed with a thousand dangers;
Weary, faint, trembling with a thousand terrors,
I'm called, if vanquished! to receive a sentence
Worse than Abiram's.

Him the vindictive rod of angry Justice
Sent quick and howling to the centre headlong;
I, fed with judgment, in a fleshly tomb, am
Buried above ground.





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