Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE ATHEIST AND THE ACORN, by ANNE FINCH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE ATHEIST AND THE ACORN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Methinks the world is oddly made
Last Line: Nor scull have kept them in.
Alternate Author Name(s): Kingsmill, Anne; Winchilsea, Countess Of
Subject(s): Atheism


Methinks the world is oddly made,
And every thing's amiss,
A dull, presuming Atheist said,
As stretch'd he lay beneath a shade,
And instanc'd it in this:

Behold, quoth he, that mighty thing,
A pumpkin large and round,
Is held but by a little string,
Which upwards cannot make it spring,
Or bear it from the ground.

While on this oak an acorn small,
So disproportion'd grows;
That who with sense surveys this all,
This universal casual ball,
Its ill contrivance knows.

My better judgment would have hung
The pumpkin on the tree,
And left the acorn, lightly strung,
'Mongst things which on the surface sprung,
And small and feeble be.

No more the caviller could say,
Nor farther faults descry;
For as he upwards gazing lay,
An acorn, loosen'd from its stay,
Fell down upon his eye.

The wounded part with tears ran o'er,
As punish'd for the sin;
Fool! had that bough a pumpkin bore,
Thy whimsies would have work'd no more,
Nor scull have kept them in.





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