Let Charity forgive me a mistake

Quote byWilliam Cowper · 1731–1800

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: "Charity", l. 634 (1782).

English (original)

Let Charity forgive me a mistake, That zeal, not vanity, has chanced to make, And spare the poet for his subject’s sake.

— William Cowper

But oars alone can ne'er prevail To reach the distant coast; The breath of Heaven must swell the sail, Or all the toil is lost.

Beware of desp'rate steps! The darkest day (Live till tomorrow) will have passed away.

Damned below Judas; more abhorred than he was.

Man disobeys, and deity disowns me.

Absence from whom we love is worse than death, And frustrate hope severer than despair.

Oh! I could thresh his old jacket till I made his pension jingle in his pockets.