Alas! What Boots The Long Laborious Quest
William Wordsworth 1770 (Wordsworth House) – 1850 (Cumberland)
ALAS! what boots the long laborious quest
Of moral prudence, sought through good and ill;
Or pains abstruse-to elevate the will,
And lead us on to that transcendent rest
Where every passion shall the sway attest
Of Reason, seated on her sovereign hill;
What is it but a vain and curious skill,
If sapient Germany must lie deprest,
Beneath the brutal sword?-Her haughty Schools
Shall blush; and may not we with sorrow say-
A few strong instincts and a few plain rules,
Among the herdsmen of the Alps, have wrought
More for mankind at this unhappy day
Then all the pride of intellect and thought?
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 32 sec read
- 124 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABBAABBACDCEDE |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 590 |
Words | 108 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
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"Alas! What Boots The Long Laborious Quest" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/42134/alas!-what-boots-the-long-laborious-quest>.
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