Weak and irresolute is man; <br />The purpose of to-day, <br />Woven with pains into his plan, <br />To-morrow rends away. <br /> <br />The bow well bent, and smart the spring, <br />Vice seems already slain; <br />But passion rudely snaps the string, <br />And it revives again. <br /> <br />Some foe to his upright intent <br />Finds out his weaker part; <br />Virtue engages his assent, <br />But Pleasure wins his heart. <br /> <br />‘Tis here the folly of the wise <br />Through all his art we view; <br />And, while his tongue the charge denies, <br />His conscience owns it true. <br /> <br />Bound on a voyage of awful length <br />And dangers little known, <br />A stranger to superior strength, <br />Man vainly trusts his own. <br /> <br />But oars alone can ne’er prevail <br />To reach the distant coast; <br />The breath of Heaven must swell the sail, <br />Or all the toil is lost.<br /><br />William Cowper<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/human-frailty/