Verses Printed By Himself On A Flood At Olney

William Cowper 1731 (Berkhamsted) – 1800 (Dereham)



To watch the storms, and hear the sky
Give all our almanacks the lie;
To shake with cold, and see the plains
In autumn drown'd 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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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

36 sec read
72

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBCCDDEEFGHHIAJK
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 585
Words 121
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 18

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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