To A Friend: Chafing At Enforced Idleness From Interrupted Health

William Watson 1858 (Burley in Wharfedale) – 1935 (Rottingdean)



Soon may the edict lapse, that on you lays
This dire compulsion of infertile days,
This hardest penal toil, reluctant rest!
Meanwhile I count you eminently blest,
Happy from labours heretofore well done,
Happy in tasks auspiciously begun.
For they are blest that have not much to rue--
That have not oft mis-heard the prompter's cue,
Stammered and stumbled and the wrong parts played,
And life a Tragedy of Errors made.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

22 sec read
328

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBCCDDEE
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 418
Words 73
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 10

William Watson

William Watson, was a surgeon in the 105th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers during the American Civil War. more…

All William Watson poems | William Watson Books

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