Classic and Contemporary Poetry
NEVER TOO LATE: FRANCESCO'S ROUNDELAY, by ROBERT GREENE Poet's Biography First Line: Sitting and sighing in my secret muse Last Line: "wo worth the faults and follies of mine eye!" Subject(s): Beauty; Love - Complaints; Man-woman Relationships; Men; Women; Youth; Male-female Relations | ||||||||
SITTING and sighing in my secret muse, As once Apollo did surpris'd with love, Noting the slippery ways young years do use, What fond affects the prime of youth do move; With bitter tears, despairing I do cry, "Wo worth the faults and follies of mine eye!" When wanton age, the blossom of my time, Drew me to gaze upon the gorgeous sight That beauty, pompous in her highest prime, Presents to tangle men with sweet delight; Then with despairing tears my thoughts did cry, "Wo worth the faults and follies of mine eye!" When I survey'd the riches of her looks, Whereout flew flames of never-quench'd desire, Wherein lay baits that Venus snares with hooks, Or where proud Cupid sat all-arm'd with fire; Then, touch'd with love, my inward soul did cry, "Wo worth the faults and follies of mine eye!" The milk-white galaxia of her brow, Where Love doth dance lavoltas of his skill, Like to the temple where true lovers vow To follow what shall please their mistress' will; Nothing her ivory front, now do I cry, "Wo worth the faults and follies of mine eye!" Her face, like silver Luna in her shine, All tainted through with bright vermilion stains, Like lilies dipt in Bacchus' choicest wine, Powder'd and interseam'd with azur'd veins; Delighting in their pride, now may I cry, "Wo worth the faults and follies of mine eye!" The golden wires that checker in the day Inferior to the tresses of her hair, Her amber trammels did my heart dismay, That, when I look'd, I durst not over-dare; Proud of her pride, now am I forc'd to cry, "Wo worth the faults and follies of mine eye!" These fading beauties drew me on to sin, Nature's great riches fram'd my bitter ruth; These were the traps that love did snare me in, O, these, and none but these, have wreck'd my youth! Misled by them, I may despairing cry, "Wo worth the faults and follies of mine eye!" By these I slipp'd from virtue's holy track, That leads unto the highest crystal sphere; By these I fell to vanity and wrack, And as a man forlorn with sin and fear, Despair and sorrow do constrain me cry, "Wo worth the faults and follies of mine eye!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MISERY AND SPLENDOR by ROBERT HASS THE APPLE TREES AT OLEMA by ROBERT HASS DOUBLE SONNET by ANTHONY HECHT CONDITIONS XXI by ESSEX HEMPHILL CALIFORNIA SORROW: MOUNTAIN VIEW by MARY KINZIE SUPERBIA: A TRIUMPH WITH NO TRAIN by MARY KINZIE COUNSEL TO UNREASON by LEONIE ADAMS TWENTY QUESTIONS by DAVID LEHMAN A FAREWELL TO FOLLY: CONTENT by ROBERT GREENE |
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