On The Reed (From The Greek)

William Cowper 1731 (Berkhamsted) – 1800 (Dereham)



I was of late a barren plant,
Useless, insignificant,
Nor fig, nor grape, nor apple bore,
A native of the marshy shore;
But, gather'd for poetic use,
And plunged into a sable juice,
Of which my modicum I sip
With narrow mouth and slender lip,
At once, although by nature dumb,
All eloquent I have become,
And speak with fluency untired,
As if by Phoebus' self inspired.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

21 sec read
344

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCCDDEEFFAG
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 366
Words 69
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 12

William Cowper

William Macquarie Cowper was an Australian Anglican archdeacon and Dean of Sydney. more…

All William Cowper poems | William Cowper Books

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