Religion

Lines Written During a Period of Insanity

by William Cowper 1731–1800

From Poems

Religion

Hatred and vengeance, my eternal portion,
Scarce can endure delay of execution,
Wait, with impatient readiness, to seize my
Soul in a moment.

Damn'd below Judas: more abhorr'd than he was,
Who for a few pence sold his holy Master.
Twice betrayed Jesus me, the last delinquent,
Deems the profanest.

Man disavows, and Deity disowns me:
Hell might afford my miseries a shelter;
Therefore hell keeps her ever hungry mouths all
Bolted against me.

Hard lot! encompass'd with a thousand dangers;
Weary, faint, trembling with a thousand terrors;
I'm called, if vanquish'd, to receive a sentence
Worse than Abiram's.

Him the vindictive rod of angry justice
Sent quick and howling to the centre headlong;
I, fed with judgment, in a fleshly tomb, am
Buried above ground.

MLA

Cowper, William. “Lines Written During a Period of Insanity.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/cowper/242/.

Chicago

Cowper, William. “Lines Written During a Period of Insanity.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/cowper/242/.

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