Classic Poem

To whom thus Bildad: " When wilt thou forbear
To clamour, and afford a patient ear?
Dost thou as beasts thy ancient friends despise?
Are we so vile and trivial in thine eyes?
O miserable man, by thy own rage
In pieces torn, can fury grief assuage?
Will God for thee the govern'd earth forsake,
His purpose change, and rocks asunder shake?
He shall their light extinguish who decline
From virtue's paths, their sparks shall cease to shine.
The wicked shall be compassed about
With darkness, and his oilless lamp fly out.
His wasted strength unthought-of mischiefs shall
Entrap, and he by his own counsels fall.
His desp'rate feet their lord to ruin lead,
And on prepared engines rashly tread.
The hunter shall entangle in his toil,
And rav'nous thieves of all his substance spoil;
Snares, spread with tempting baits, for him shall lay,
And dig concealed pitfalls in his way.
A thousand horrors shall his soul affright,
Encounter, and pursue his guilty flight.
Destruction shall upon his steps attend,
And famine's rage into his guts descend;
She shall the sinews of his strength devour,
And death's first-born shall crop him in his flow'r;
Cut off his confidence, and to the king
Of terrors his accused conscience bring.
Driv'n from the house unjustly call'd his own,
By rapine got, which flaming sulphur, thrown
From Heav'n, shall burn; his root within the ground
Shall wither, and the axe his branches wound.
He and his dying memory shall rot,
His name ev'n by the present age forgot.
From light into perpetual darkness hurl'd,
And, as a mischief, chas'd out of the world.
No son or nephew shall supply his place,
Himself the last of his accursed race.
Posterity, as those then living, shall
With wonder tremble at his fearful fall.
So tragical and merited a fate
Shall swallow those who God and justice hate. "