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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO THE MOST SCARED KING JAMES, by THOMAS CAMPION Poet Analysis Poet's Biography
First Line: O grief, how divers are thy shapes wherein men languish
Last Line: When we were least aware.
Subject(s): James I, King Of England (1566-1625); Mourning; Bereavement
First Line: O grief, how divers are thy shapes wherein men languish
Last Line: When we were least aware.
Subject(s): James I, King Of England (1566-1625); Mourning; Bereavement
1.
O GRIEF, how divers are thy shapes wherein men languish!
The face sometime with tears thou fill'st,
Sometime the heart thou kill'st
With unseen anguish.
Sometime thou smilest to view how Fate
Plays with our human state:
So far from surety here
Are all our earthly joys,
That what our strong hope builds, when least we fear,
A stronger power destroys.
2.
O Fate, why shouldst thou take from Kings their joy and treasure?
Their image if men should deface
'Twere death, which thou dost race
Even at thy pleasure.
Wisdom of holy kings yet knows
Both what it hath, and owes.
Heaven's hostage, which you bred
And nursed with such choice care,
Is ravished now, great King, and from us fled
When we were least aware.
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