Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


CANT by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES

Poet Analysis

First Line: WHAT CANT, OH, WHAT HYPOCRISY
Last Line: GET EVERLASTING BLISS!
Subject(s): HUMAN BEHAVIOR; HYPOCRISY; CONDUCT OF LIFE; HUMAN NATURE;

What cant, oh, what hypocrisy
Is centred in this life of man!
Self-preservation is his God,
And has been, since his life began.
He sits to breakfast with no care
Of others that have none;
He keeps more idle rooms than two,
While @3families@1 live in one;
He saves his gold, and yet he sees
Others without a penny;
He hoards his clothes, and knows full well
Of children without any.
He makes his own sweet life secure,
And then -- to crown all this --
Insults a God by thinking he'll
Get everlasting bliss!



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