Religion
The Atheist and the Acorn
From Miscellany Poems, on Several Occasions (1713)
Methinks this World is oddly made,
And ev'ry thing's amiss,
A dull presuming Atheist said,
As stretch'd he lay beneath a Shade;
And instanced in this:
Behold, quoth he, that mighty thing,
A Pumpkin, large and round,
Is held but by a little String,
Which upwards cannot make it spring,
Or bear it from the Ground.
Whilst on this Oak, a Fruit so small,
So disproportion'd, grows;
That, who with Sence surveys this All,
This universal Casual Ball,
Its ill Contrivance knows.
My better Judgment wou'd have hung
That Weight upon a Tree,
And left this Mast, thus slightly strung,
'Mongst things which on the Surface sprung,
And small and feeble be.
No more the Caviller cou'd say,
Nor farther Faults descry;
For, as he upwards gazing lay,
An Acorn, loosen'd from the Stay,
Fell down upon his Eye.
Th' offended Part with Tears ran o'er,
As punish'd for the Sin:
Fool! had that Bough a Pumpkin bore,
Thy Whimseys must have work'd no more,
Nor Scull had kept them in.
Codex Note
A fable in which a self-satisfied atheist, lying under an oak, complains that the world is oddly made and is struck on the eye by an acorn. Had the bough borne a pumpkin, the poem says, his speculations would have ended there.
Cite this poem
MLA
Finch, Anne, Countess of Winchilsea. “The Atheist and the Acorn.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/finch/6/.
Chicago
Finch, Anne, Countess of Winchilsea. “The Atheist and the Acorn.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/finch/6/.
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