(TO THE CLOSE OF THE TROUBLES IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I) HOW soon -- alas! did Man, created pure -- By Angels guarded, deviate from the line Prescribed to duty: -- woeful forfeiture He made by wilful breach of law divine. With like perverseness did the Church abjure Obedience to her Lord, and haste to twine, 'Mid Heaven-born flowers that shall for aye endure, Weeds on whose front the world had fixed her sign. O Man, -- if with thy trials thus it fares, If good can smooth the way to evil choice, From all rash censure be the mind kept free; He only judges right who weighs, compares, And in the sternest sentence which his voice Pronounces, ne'er abandons Charity. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: IMANUEL EHRENHARDT by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SPRING ON BROADWAY by LOUIS UNTERMEYER WINGED MAN by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET DISDAIN RETURNED by THOMAS CAREW THE BLESSED VIRGIN, COMPARED TO THE AIR WE BREATHE by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS DANNY DEEVER by RUDYARD KIPLING |