Classic and Contemporary Poetry
LOVE ABUSED, by WILLIAM COWPER Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: What is there in the vale of life Last Line: And sighs that heave a breaking heart. Subject(s): Love - Complaints | ||||||||
WHAT is there in the vale of life Half so delightful as a Wife, When friendship, love, and peace combine To stamp the marriage-bond divine? The stream of pure and genuine love Derives its current from above; And earth a second Eden shows, Where'er the healing water flows: But ah, if, from the dykes and drains Of sensual nature's feverish veins, Lust, like a lawless headstrong flood, Impregnated with ooze and mud, Descending fast on every side, Once mingles with the sacred tide, Farewell the soul-enlivening scene! The banks that wore a smiling green, With rank defilement overspread, Bewail their flowery beauties dead. The stream polluted, dark, and dull, Diffused into a Stygian pool, Through life's last melancholy years Is fed with ever-flowing tears: Complaints supply the zephyr's part, And sighs that heave a breaking heart. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TALKING RICHARD WILSON BLUES, BY RICHARD CLAY WILSON by DENIS JOHNSON THE BRIDGE by ALEXANDER ANDERSON THE RABBI'S SON-IN-LAW by SABINE BARING-GOULD MISGIVINGS by WILLIAM MATTHEWS THROUGH AGONY: 1 by CLAUDE MCKAY HEMATITE HEIRLOOM LIVES ON (MAYBE DECEMBER 1980) by ALICE NOTLEY QUICK AND BITTER by YEHUDA AMICHAI A COMPARISON by WILLIAM COWPER |
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