The Course of Time is a ten-book poem in blank verse, first published in 1827. It was the last published and most famous work of Scottish poet Robert Pollok. The first edition of the poem sold 12,000 copies, and by its fourth edition it had sold 78,000 copies and become well known even in North America.Pollok himself died in September 1827, only a few months after the poem was published.
“With one hand he put
A penny in the urn of poverty,
And with the other took a shilling out.”
Book viii, line 632.
The Course of Time (published 1827)
“He was a man
Who stole the livery of the court of Heaven
To serve the Devil in.”
Book viii, line 616.
The Course of Time (published 1827)
Book ii, line 270.
The Course of Time (published 1827)
Book v, line 722.
The Course of Time (published 1827)
“He laid his hand upon "the Ocean's mane,"
And played familiar with his hoary locks.”
Book iv, line 689. Compare: "And I have loved thee, Ocean! … And laid my hand upon thy mane,—as I do here", Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-1818), Canto IV, st. 184.
The Course of Time (published 1827)
Book iv, line 684.
The Course of Time (published 1827)
“T was Slander filled her mouth with lying words,
Slander, the foulest whelp of Sin.”
Book iv, line 725.
The Course of Time (published 1827)
