Pernicious Weed!

William Cowper 1731 (Berkhamsted) – 1800 (Dereham)



The pipe, with solemn interposing puff,
Makes half a sentence at a time enough;
The dozing sages drop the drowsy strain,
Then pause and puff, and speak, and pause again.
Such often, like the tube they so admire,
Important triflers! have more smoke than fire.
Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys,
Unfriendly to society's chief joys,
Thy worst effect is banishing for hours
The sex whose presence civilizes ours.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

21 sec read
411

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBCCDDEE
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 418
Words 72
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 10

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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    "Pernicious Weed!" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 31 Oct. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/40070/pernicious-weed!>.

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