Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Chance and Change" is a poem by Thomas Campion, a prominent English poet and composer of the Renaissance period. The poem is a reflection on the transience and unpredictability of life, as well as the human desire for stability and constancy. It was first published in 1607.

The first stanza sets the tone for the poem, with the speaker contemplating the fleeting nature of human existence: "Time's fatal wings do ever forward fly; / To every day we live, a day we die." This sense of inevitability and mortality is reinforced in the second stanza, with the image of the "worms that with our bodies eat," a vivid reminder of our physical decay and impermanence.

Despite this recognition of the transience of life, the speaker also expresses a longing for something more permanent and enduring. The refrain "I fain would stay, but I must go" is repeated throughout the poem, emphasizing the tension between the desire for stability and the reality of change.

The poem is notable for its use of rhyme and meter, with each stanza composed of four lines in iambic tetrameter. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, with the second and fourth lines of each stanza rhyming with each other. This gives the poem a sense of formal elegance and structure, even as it grapples with weighty existential themes.

In conclusion, "Chance and Change" is a poignant reflection on the fragility and impermanence of human life, as well as the human longing for stability and constancy. Through its use of vivid imagery and formal structure, the poem captures the enduring appeal of poetry as a means of grappling with life's greatest mysteries and uncertainties.

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