Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, UPON OUR VAIN FLATTERY OF OURSELVES...SUCCEEDING TIMES WILL BE BETTER, by ROBERT GOMERSALL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

UPON OUR VAIN FLATTERY OF OURSELVES...SUCCEEDING TIMES WILL BE BETTER, by                    
First Line: Never was there morning yet
Last Line: Die unhappy and deceived.
Alternate Author Name(s): Gomersal, Robert
Subject(s): Future; Past


NEVER was there morning yet
(Sweet as is the violet)
Which man's folly did not soon
Wish to be expired at noon;
As though such an haste did tend
To our bliss, and not our end.
Nay the young ones in the nest
Suck this folly from the breast,
And no stammering ape but can
Spoil a prayer to be a man.
But suppose that he is heard,
By the sprouting of his beard,
And he hath what he doth seek,
The soft clothing of the cheek:
Would he yet stay here? or be
Fixt in this maturity?
Sooner shall the wand'ring star
Learn what rest and quiet are:
Sooner shall the slippery rill
Leave his motion and stand still.
Be it joy, or be it sorrow,
We refer all to the morrow.
That we think will ease our pain,
That we do suppose again
Will increase our joy, and so
Events, the which we cannot know,
We magnify, and are (in sum)
Enamoured of the time to come.
Well, the next day comes, and then,
Another next, and so to ten,
To twenty we arrive, and find
No more before us than behind
Of solid joy, and yet haste on
To our consummation.
Till the baldness of the crown,
Till that all the face do frown,
Till the forehead often have
The remembrance of a grave;
Till the eyes look in, to find
If that they can see the mind;
Till the sharpness of the nose,
Till that we have lived, to pose
Sharper eyes, who cannot know
Whether we are men or no.
Till the tallow of the cheek,
Till we know not what we seek,
And at last of life bereaved,
Die unhappy and deceived.





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