LXXXVIII.
[I long maintayned warre gainst Reasons rule]
This whole Sonnet is nothing els but a briefe and pithy morall,
and made after the selfe same vaine with that, which is
last before it. The two first staffes, (excepting onely the two
first verses of all) expresse the Authours alteration of minde
& life, and his change from his late vaine estate and follies
in loue, by a metaphore of the shipmā, which by shipwrakes
chaunce is happely restoared on a sodeine vnto that land,
which he a long time had most wished for.
I long
maintayned warre gainst Reasons rule,
I wandred pilgrime like in Errors maze,
I sat in Follies ship, and playde the foole,
Till on Repentance rocke hir sides did craze:
Herewith I learne by hurtes alreadie past,
“That each extreme will change it selfe at last.
This shipwrackes chance hath set me on a shelfe,
Where neither Loue can hurte me any more,
Nor Fortunes hand, though she enforce her selfe;
Discretion graunts to set me safe on shoare,
Where guile is fettred fast and wisedome rules,
To punish heedeles hearts and wilfull fooles.
And since the heau'ns haue better lot assign'd,
I feare to burne, as hauing felte the fire;
And proofe of harmes so changed hath my minde,
That witt and will to Reason doe retyre:
Not Venus nowe, nor Loue with all his snares
Can drawe my witts to woes at vnawares.
