Classic and Contemporary Poetry
STANZAS PRINTED ON BILLS OF MORTALITY: 1790, by WILLIAM COWPER Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: He who sits from day to day Last Line: Make us learn that we must die. Subject(s): Mortality | ||||||||
Ne commonentem recta sperne.--BUCHANAN. Despise not my good counsel. HE who sits from day to day Where the prisoned lark is hung, Heedless of his loudest lay, Hardly knows that he has sung. Where the watchman in his round Nightly lifts his voice on high, None, accustomed to the sound, Wakes the sooner for his cry. So your verse-man I, and clerk, Yearly in my song proclaim Death at hand--yourselves his mark-- And the foe's unerring aim. Duly at my time I come, Publishing to all aloud-- Soon the grave must be your home, And your only suit a shroud. But the monitory strain, Oft repeated in your ears, Seems to sound too much in vain, Wins no notice, wakes no fears. Can a truth, by all confessed Of such magnitude and weight, Grow, by being oft expressed, Trivial as a parrot's prate? Pleasure's call attention wins, Hear it often as we may; New as ever seem our sins, Though committed every day. Death and Judgment, Heaven and Hell-- These alone, so often heard, No more move us than the bell When some stranger is interred. Oh then, ere the turf or tomb Cover us from every eye, Spirit of instruction! come Make us learn that we must die. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WISE MEN IN THEIR BAD HOURS by ROBINSON JEFFERS READING ALOUD TO MY FATHER by JANE KENYON A COMPARISON by WILLIAM COWPER |
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