Be dumb, coarse measures, jar no more; to me There is no discord, but your harmony. False, juggling sounds; a groan well dressed, where care Moves in disguise, and sighs afflict the air: Sorrows in white; griefs tuned; a sugared dosis Of wormwood, and a Death's-head crowned with Roses. He weighs not your forced accents, who can have A lesson played him by a wind or wave. Such numbers tell their days, whose spirits be Lulled by those charmers to a lethargy. But as for thee, whose faults long since require More eyes than stars; whose breath, could it aspire To equal winds, would prove too short: thou hast Another mirth, a mirth though overcast With clouds and rain, yet full as calm and fine As those @3clear heights@1 which above tempests shine. Therefore while the various showers Kill and cure the tender flowers, While the winds refresh the year Now with clouds, now making clear, Be sure under pains of death To ply both thine eyes and breath. As leafs in bowers Whisper their hours, And hermit-wells Drop in their cells: So in sighs and unseen tears Pass thy solitary years, And going hence, leave written on some tree, @3Sighs make joy sure, and shaking fastens thee@1. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OH! SUSANNA! by STEPHEN COLLINS FOSTER THE SOLDIER by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS BARS FIGHT, AUGUST 28, 1746 by LUCY TERRY SHE LOOKS BEYOND TO-MORROW by RUTH FITCH BARTLETT TO NATURE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN SONNET TO - -. by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT |