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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MALHAM COVE, by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH Poet Analysis Poet's Biography
First Line: Was the aim frustrated by force or guile
Last Line: Than noblest objects utterly decayed.
First Line: Was the aim frustrated by force or guile
Last Line: Than noblest objects utterly decayed.
WAS the aim frustrated by force or guile,
When giants scooped from out the rocky ground,
Tier under tier, this semicirque profound?
(Giants -- the same who built in Erin's isle
That Causeway with incomparable toil!) --
Oh, had this vast theatric structure wound
With finished sweep into a perfect round,
No mightier work had gained the plausive smile
Of all-beholding Phoebus! But, alas,
Vain earth! false world! Foundations must be laid
In Heaven; for, 'mid the wreck of IS and WAS,
Things incomplete and purposes betrayed
Make sadder transits o'er thought's optic glass
Than noblest objects utterly decayed.
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Other Poems of Interest...
A JEWISH FAMILY; IN A SMALL VALLEY OPPOSITE ST. GOAR by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
ADMONITION [TO A TRAVELLER] by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
AN APRIL MORNING by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
ANECDOTE FOR FATHERS by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
ANIMAL TRANQUILITY AND DECAY; A SKETCH by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
AT FLORENCE by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
AT THE GRAVE OF BURNS; SEVEN YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
BUONAPARTE by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
COMPOSED AT NEIDPATH CASTLE, 1803 by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
COMPOSED BY THE SEA-SIDE NEAR CALAIS [AUGUST 1802] by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH