Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SIDNEY'S ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: CANTO QUINTO. CONTENT, by THOMAS CAMPION



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SIDNEY'S ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: CANTO QUINTO. CONTENT, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: A day, a night, an hour of sweet content
Last Line: But hast thou bliss in youth? O sweet estate!
Subject(s): Aging; Grief; Time; Sorrow; Sadness


A day, a night, an hour of sweet content
Is worth a world consumed in fretful care.
Unequal Gods! in your arbitrament
To sort us days whose sorrows endless are!
And yet what were it, as a fading flower,
To swim in bliss a day, a night, and hour?
What plague is greater than the grief of mind?
The grief of mind that eats in every vein,
In every vein that leaves such clods behind,
Such clods behind as breed such bitter pain,
So bitter pain that none shall ever find,
What plague is greater than the grief of mind.
Doth sorrow fret thy soul? O direful spirit!
Doth pleasure feed thy heart? O blessed man!
Hast thou been happy once? O heavy plight!
Are thy mishaps forepassed? O happy then!
Or hast thou bliss in eld? O bliss too late!
But hast thou bliss in youth? O sweet estate!





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