Acrostic Quotes
Fox-Trot-9

24. William Cowper

1

Over the ruins of my shattered pride,
Hated amongst my peers, I shift about

For someplace in the shadows I can hide
Only to find a grim supply of drought,
Nothing to gain but traces of reproach—
Difficult to undo when all my senses

Are plagued with doubts about my fell approach—
That settle on their judging countenances.
Their eyes are filled with traces of my doom,
Embittered by their bitter tongue of rumors,
Marking my name with scandal on my tomb,
Perhaps t' abuse me in their bitter humors.
Their guessing looks compel me to move on

To better shades, where ignorance bestows
On eyes unused to laying views upon

Gloomy men kindred looks that I suppose
Intend to leave alone my circumstance,
Verily paying me no second glance.
Even when I betake myself into

A temporary peace within the shade,

Dust shall be my predestined lot unto
Eternity, in which my dreams shall fade;
And with them goes my confidence and pride
To set my spirit free from needless pain,
Here to relive my sorrows as I hide,
Lost to a world that left me in disdain.
Evan as storms of self-willed hatred passes,
Succumbing to the folds of soft despair,
Some things can never satisfy the masses'

Lusting to judge their peers in false compare:
On this, I must attempt to raise my lot
To better things before it comes to nought.

2

To those without a name, who live and strut
On the world's stage without their due of shame,

Nothing is worse than living out a rut
As boring as it is devoid of blame;
My life has yet to travel on the path
Enlightened by the guiding light of hope;
Such is my fate to journey through the wrath

I have incited, slipping down the slope,
Going still further down into a depth
Never before observed by virgin eyes,
Only to be oppressed with just one breath,
Breathing the stuffy atmosphere of lies:
Let those that gave my name this injury
Evidence their defense of perjury!

But if I'm doomed by fate t' expunge my name
Out of the living words of future men,
Replaced upon the pedestal of fame,
Never to be remembered even when

The very loss of my own name will kill me,
On your own terms will I now fade away;

Before your lulling breath of sleep will fill me,
Entreating me to calm my fears, delay

For me a little while to pray for those
Obscured by circumstances not their own:
Remember those who died within their throes,
Giving their lives to you as they atone.
On this, I'll give my final living thought
To names ignoble, born to be forgot!

Oh fond attempt to give a deathless lot,
To names ignoble, born to be forgot!
—William Cowper

(To be continued...)

A/N: William Cowper was an English poet and hymnodist. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the English countryside. In many ways, he was one of the forerunners of Romantic poetry.

Meter: Iambic pentameter
Rhyme Scheme: Shakespearean sonnet