University of Virginia Library

previous section Poems and Lancashire Songs
next section
35

THE WORLD.

I

This foolish world doth wink
Its cunning lid;
And, when it thinks, it thinks
Its thoughts are hid.

II

Its piety's a screen
Where vice doth hide;
Its purity's unclean;
Its meekness, pride.
36

III

Its charity's a bait
To catch a name;
Its kindness covers hate;
Its praise is blame.

IV

Its wisdom soweth seeds
Which follies prove;
And its repentance needs
Repenting of.

V

Its learning's empty talk;
Its heart is cold;
Its church is an exchange;
Its god is gold.
37

VI

Its pleasures all are blind,
And lead to pain;
Its treasures are a kind
Of losing gain.

VII

Lust moves it more than love,
Fear more than shame;
Its best ambitions have
A grovelling aim.

VIII

Its laws are a disgrace;
Its lords are slaves;
Its honours are misplaced,
E'en on our graves.
38

IX

Some sorrow doth attend
Its happiest dreams;
And rottenness doth end
Its rotten schemes.

X

Oh, cure this moral madness—
This soul-disease;
Shew us that Vice brings sadness,
And Virtue, ease.

XI

And teach us in the hour
Of Sin's dismay,
That Truth's the only flower
Without decay.
previous section Poems and Lancashire Songs
next section