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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE GOOD SHEPHERD by FELIX LOPE DE VEGA CARPIO SONNET by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY IN MEMORIAM, A.H. by MAURICE BARING GOD BLESS YOU, DEAR, TODAY by JOHN BENNETT (1865-1956) THE LOVE SONNETS OF PROTEUS: 51. FAREWELL TO JULIET (13) by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT NIMROD: 1 by ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH |