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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO LADY AUSTEN, WRITTEN IN RAINY WEATHER by WILLIAM COWPER

Poet Analysis

First Line: TO WATCH THE STORMS, AND HEAR THE SKY
Last Line: AND NO AMBITION TO HAVE MORE.
Subject(s): FLOODS; STORMS;

To watch the storms, and hear the sky
Give all our almanacks the lie;
To shake with cold, and see the plains
In autumn drowned with wintry rains;
'Tis thus I spend my moments here,
And wish myself a Dutch mynheer;
I then should have no need of wit,
For lumpish Hollander unfit!
Nor should I then repine at mud,
Or meadows deluged with a flood;
But in a bog live well content,
And find it just my element:
Should be a clod, and not a man;
Nor wish in vain for Sister Ann,
With charitable aid to drag
My mind out of its proper quag;
Should have the genius of a boor,
And no ambition to have more.



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