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Human Frailty.

By William Cowper

Topics: classic

Weak and irresolute is man;     The purpose of to-day,     Woven with pains into his plan,     To-morrow rends away.     The bow well bent, and smart the spring,     Vice seems already slain;     But passion rudely snaps the string,     And it revives again.     Some foe to his upright intent     Finds out his weaker part;     Virtue engages his assent,     But Pleasure wins his heart.     Tis here the folly of the wise     Through all his art we view;     And, while his tongue the charge denies,     His conscience owns it true.     Bound on a voyage of awful length     And dangers little known,     A stranger to superior strength,     Man vainly trusts his own.     But oars alone can neer prevail     To reach the distant coast;     The breath of Heaven must swell the sail,     Or all the toil is lost.

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"Weak and irresolute is man;..."

This evocative piece by William Cowper, titled "Human Frailty.", represents a masterful exploration of classic. The lines capture a profound emotional resonance... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

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Author:William Cowper

"Weak and irresolute is man;..." by William Cowper

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

William Cowper

About William Cowper

William Cowper (1731–1800) was an English poet and hymnodist whose work bridges the gap between the Augustan age and Romanticism. His poems "The Task" and "John Gilpin" were enormously popular, and his hymn "God Moves in a Mysterious Way" remains widely sung.

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