Religion
Lines Written During a Period of Insanity
From Poems
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.
Cite this poem
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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