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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


AS CONCERNING MAN by JOHN WILMOT

Poet Analysis

First Line: TO WHAT INTENT OR PURPOSE WAS MAN MADE
Last Line: THAN THUS TO BE PERPLEX'D: GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.
Subject(s): MANKIND; HUMAN RACE;

To what intent or purpose was Man made,
Who is by Birth to misery betray'd?
Man in his tedious course of life runs through
More Plagues that all the Land of @3Egypt@1 knew.
Doctors, Divines, grave Disputations, Puns,
Ill looking Citizens, and scurvy Duns;
Insipid Squires, fat Bishops, Deans and Chapters,
Enthusiasts, Prophecies, new Rants and Raptures;
Pox, Gout, Catarrhs, old Sores, Cramps, Rheums and Aches;
Half witted Lords, double chinn'd Bawds with Patches;
Illiterate Courtiers, Chancery Suits for Life,
A teazing Whore, and a more tedious Wife;
Raw Inns of Court men, empty Fops, Buffoons,
Bullies, robust, round Aldermen, and Clowns;
Gown-men which argue, and discuss, and prate
And vent dull Notions of a future State;
Sure of another World, yet do not know
Whether they shall be sav'd, or damn'd, or how.
'Twere better then that Man had never been,
Than thus to be perplex'd: @3God Save the Queen@1.



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