William Cowper

A story, in which native humour reigns,
Is often useful, always entertains;
A graver fact, enlisted on read more

A story, in which native humour reigns,
Is often useful, always entertains;
A graver fact, enlisted on your side,
May furnish illustration, well applied;
But sedentary weavers of long tales
Give me the fidgets, and my patience fails.

As creeping ivy clings to wood or stone,
And hides the ruin that it feeds upon.

As creeping ivy clings to wood or stone,
And hides the ruin that it feeds upon.

Defend me, therefore, common sense, say
From reveries so airy, from the toil
Of dropping buckets into read more

Defend me, therefore, common sense, say
From reveries so airy, from the toil
Of dropping buckets into empty wells,
And growing old in drawing nothing up.

A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.

A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.

Without one friend, above all foes,
Britannia gives the world repose.

Without one friend, above all foes,
Britannia gives the world repose.