 | "Songes and Sonettes written by the ryght honorable
Lorde Henry Haward late Earle of Surrey, and other" |  |
The doutfull man
The meane estate is best.
T2v
And constant hope is oft diseased,
Dispaire can not but brede a change,
Nor fletyng hartes can not be pleasde.
Of all these badde, the best I thinke,
Is well to hope, though fortune shrinke.
Desired thinges are not ay prest,
Nor thinges denide left all vnsought,
Nor new things to be loued best,
Nor all offers to be set at nought,
Where faithfull hart hath bene refusde,
The chosers wit was there abusde.
The woful shyppe of carefull sprite,
Fletyng on seas of wellyng teares,
With sayles of wishes broken quite,
Hangyng on waues of dolefull feares,
By surge of sighes at wrecke nere hand,
May fast no anker holde on land.
What helps the dyall to the blinde,
Or els the clock without it sound,
Or who by dreames dothe hope to finde,
The hidden gold within the ground:
Shalbe as free from cares and feares,
As he that holds a wolfe by the eares.
And how much mad is he that thinkes
To clime to heauen by the beames,
What ioye alas, hath he that winkes,
At Titan or his golden stremes,
His ioyes not subiect to reasons lawes,
That ioyeth more then he hath cause.
For as the Phenix that climeth hye,
The sonne lightly in ashes burneth,
Againe, the Faulcon so quicke of eye,
Sone on the ground the net masheth.
Experience therfore the meane assurance,
Prefers before the doutfull pleasance.
| "Songes and Sonettes written by the ryght honorable
Lorde Henry Haward late Earle of Surrey, and other" | |