Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HUMAN FRAILITY, by WILLIAM COWPER


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HUMAN FRAILITY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Weak and irresolute is man
Last Line: Or all the toil is lost.
Subject(s): Mankind; Human Race


WEAK and irresolute is man;
The purpose of to-day,
Woven with pains into his plan,
To-morrow rends away.

The bow well bent and smart the spring,
Vice seems already slain,
But passion rudely snaps the string,
And it revives again.

Some foe to his upright intent
Finds out his weaker part,
Virtue engages his assent,
But pleasure wins his heart.

'Tis here the folly of the wise
Through all his art we view,
And while his tongue the charge denies,
His conscience owns it true.

Bound on a voyage of awful length
And dangers little known,
A stranger to superior strength,
Man vainly trusts his own.

But oars alone can ne'er prevail
To reach the distant coast,
The breath of heaven must swell the sail,
Or all the toil is lost.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net