[Editor: This poem by William Blocksidge (also known as William Baylebridge) was published in Songs o’ the South (1908).]
Sloth’s Avenger
Avaunt, grim spectre! tend no more my dreams
To load them with a lust of carking care!
Away, dark shade that would my soul ensnare
And strip to proud Disdain’s reproving schemes!
And O, thy murderous hatred more beseems
Some doughtier deed than fouling what Despair,
With rough design, hath ploughed with rending share —
My heart, for this Despair her holding deems!
And yet, methinks, her crop will better prove
In that it hath been fertilised by thee;
For when the soil in travail deep doth move
A richer harvest crowns the husbandry;
And thus, O thus it truly doth behove
I bear with grace what brings but good to me!
Source:
William Blocksidge, Songs o’ the South, London: Watts, 1908, p. 50
Editor’s notes:
doth = (archaic) does
hath = (archaic) has
methinks = (archaic) I think (sometimes used in the sense of “it seems to me”)
rend = to tear or break in a violent manner
shade = ghost, phantom; disembodied spirit
spectre = ghost, phantom; disembodied spirit; the possibility or likelihood of something unpleasant or dangerous that is expected, predicted, or feared to occur in the future (e.g. the spectre of war) (also spelt: specter)
thee = (archaic) you
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