Classic and Contemporary Poetry
FORTUNE, NATURE, LOVE, by PHILIP SIDNEY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Fortune, nature, love, long have contended about me Last Line: But most wretched I am, now love awakes my desire. | ||||||||
Fortune, Nature, Love, long have contended about me, Which should most miseries, cast on a worm that I am. Fortune thus gan say: "Misery and misfortune is all one, And of misfortune, fortune hath only the gift. With strong foes on land, on seas with contrary tempests Still do I cross this wretch, what so he taketh in hand." "Tush, tush," said Nature, "this is all but a trifle, a man's self Gives haps or mishaps, ev'n as he ord'reth his heart. But so his humor I frame, in a mould of choler adjusted, That the delights of life shall be to him dolorous." Love smiled, and thus said: "Want join'd to desire is unhappy. But if he nought do desire, what can Heraclitus ail? None but I, works by desire; by desire have I kindled in his soul Infernal agonies unto a beauty divine, Where thou poor Nature left all thy due glory, to Fortune Her virtue is sovereign, Fortune a vassal of hers." Nature abash'd went back; Fortune blush'd; yet she replied thus: "And ev'n in that love, shall I reserve him a spite." Thus, thus, alas! woeful in Nature, unhappy by Fortune, But most wretched I am, now Love awakes my desire. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ARCADIA: THE BARGAIN by PHILIP SIDNEY ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: 1 by PHILIP SIDNEY ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: 109 by PHILIP SIDNEY ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: 110 by PHILIP SIDNEY ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: 14 by PHILIP SIDNEY ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: 20 by PHILIP SIDNEY ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: 24 by PHILIP SIDNEY ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: 25 by PHILIP SIDNEY ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: 31 by PHILIP SIDNEY ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: 32 by PHILIP SIDNEY |
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