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Original, serious, and religious poetry

by the Rev. Richard Cobbold

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 I. 
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 XX. 
 XXI. 
REFLECTION XXI.
  
  
 XXII. 
  
 XXIII. 
  
 XXIV. 
  
  
  
 XXV. 
  
  
  
  
  
 XXVI. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


152

REFLECTION XXI.

As bounds the billow o'er the main,
As sweeps the lightning through the sky,
As torrents deluging the plain,
Ah so is spirit's poetry!
The thunder rolls in distant cloud,
The sky portentous, frowning, red,
The look of haughty, sullen, proud,
Is not more gloomy than the dead.
O I have seen the stately look,
The eye of scorn dissembling man,
That haughty flesh which could not brook
Another's thought, another's plan.

153

The statesman piqued by conscious fault,
The lawyer in an error found,
The general compelled to halt,
The poet caught by critic sound.
The purse proud piqued by free born soul,
By noble Christian seeking good,
The angry lord of such controul,
Who would not be at all withstood.
'Tis well perhaps you think me proud,
I think myself too much indeed,
But all I wish for in the crowd,
Is this my love, let virtue speed.
Let virtue speed, let wisdom live,
Let vice be hidden, and o'erthrown,
God give me grace, thy precept give,
And let me make thy laws mine own.