When raging love with extreme pain Most cruelly distrains my heart; When that my tears, as floods of rain, Bear witness of my woeful smart; When sighs have wasted so my breath That I lie at the point of death: I call to mind the navy great That the Greeks brought to Troye town, And how the boisteous winds did beat Their ships, and rent their sails adown; Till Agamemnon's daughter's blood Appeased the gods that them withstood. And how that in those ten years' war Full many a bloody deed was done, And many a lord that came full far There caught his bane, alas, too soon; And many a good knight overrun, Before the Greeks had Helen won. Then think I thus: sith such repair, So long time war of valiant men, Was all to win a lady fair, Shall I not learn to suffer then, And think my life well spent to be Serving a worthier wight than she? Therefore I never will repent, But pains contented still endure; For like as when, rough winter spent, The pleasant spring straight draweth in ure, So, after raging storms of care, Joyful at length may be my fare. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SAILING BEYOND SEAS (OLD STYLE) by JEAN INGELOW ON THE PORTRAIT OF SHAKESPEARE by BEN JONSON NO LONGER COULD I DOUBT HIM TRUE by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 83. BARREN SPRING by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI TO THE CASTLE OF DONEGAL by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM ON THE LATE S.T. COLERIDGE by WASHINGTON ALLSTON |