All hail! inexorable lord!
First Line | All hail! inexorable lord! |
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Author | Robert Burns |
Description | Lyric [Death, afterlife; Devotional writing, religious belief]. Transcribed from Burns, Robert. "To Ruin." Poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect. By Robert Burns, 1787, pp. 176–177. Eighteenth Century Collections Online, GALE|CW0110589506. |
Links |
Transcription
All hail! inexorable lord!
At whose destruction-breathing word,
The mightiest empires fall!
Thy cruel, woe-delighted train,
The ministers of Grief and Pain
A sullen welcome, all!
With stern-resolv'd, despairing eye,
I see each aimed dart;
For one has cut my dearest tye,
And quivers in my heart.
Then low'ring, and pouring,
The Storm no more I dread;
Tho' thick'ning, and blackning,
Round my devoted head.
And thou grim Pow'r, by Life abhorr'd,
While Life a pleasure can afford,
O! hear a wretch's pray'r!
No more I shrink appall'd, afraid;
I court, I beg thy friendly aid,
To close this scene of care!
When shall my soul, in silent peace,
Resign Life's joyless day?
My weary heart it's throbbings cease,
Cold-mould'ring in the clay?
No fear more, no tear more,
To stain my lifeless face,
Enclasped, and grasped,
Within thy cold embrace!
Bodleian MS Mont. e. 14
Title | Poetry Selected and Orginal, 1788 & 1789 |
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Period | 1761-1790 , 1791-1820 |
Archive | Bodleian Library |
ff. 11v–12r.
Local title: To Ruin.
Attributed author: Burns.
Adaptation: n/a
Other variants: n/a
Other: n/a