On Observing Some Names Of Little Note Recorded In The Biographia Britannica

William Cowper 1731 (Berkhamsted) – 1800 (Dereham)



Oh fond attempt to give a deathless lot,
To names ignoble, born to be forgot!
In vain recorded in historic page,
They court the notice of a future age,
Those twinkling tiny lustres of the land
Drop one by one from fame's neglecting hand,
Lethean gulfs receive them as they fall,
And dark oblivion soon absorbs them all.
So when a child, as playful children use,
Has burnt to tinder a stale last year's news,
The flame extinct, he views the roving fire,
There goes my lady, and there goes the squire;
There goes the parson, oh! illustrious spark,
And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

33 sec read
125

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBCCDDEFGHIJ
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 592
Words 109
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14

William Cowper

William Macquarie Cowper was an Australian Anglican archdeacon and Dean of Sydney. more…

All William Cowper poems | William Cowper Books

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    "On Observing Some Names Of Little Note Recorded In The Biographia Britannica" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/40036/on-observing-some-names-of-little-note-recorded-in-the-biographia-britannica>.

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