Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DON QUIXOTE: SONG, by THOMAS D'URFEY



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DON QUIXOTE: SONG, by                    
First Line: Let the dreadful engines of eternal will
Last Line: And so I fairly bid 'em and the world good night.
Subject(s): Courtship; Desire; Fire


LET the dreadful engines of eternal will
The thunder roar and crooked lightning kill,
My rage is hot as theirs and fatal too,
And dares as horrid execution do.

Or let the frozen North its rancour show,
Within my breast far greater tempests glow;
Despair's more cold than all the winds that blow.
Can nothing warm me? Yes, Lucinda's eyes,
There Etna, there Vesuvio lies,
To furnish hell with flames that mounting reach the skies.

Ye Powers! I did but use her name,
And see how all the meteors flame,
Blue lightning flashes round the court of Sol,
And now the globe more fiercely burns than once at Phaeton's fall.

Ah, where are now those flowing groves
Where Zephyr's fragrant winds did play,
Where, guarded by a troop of loves,
The fair Lucinda sleeping lay?
There sung the nightingale and lark,
Around us all was sweet and gay,
We ne'er grew sad till it grew dark,
And nothing feared but shortening day.

I glow, I glow, but 'tis with hate—
Why must I burn for this ingrate?
Cool it then, and rail,
Since nothing will prevail.

When a woman love pretends
'Tis but till she gains her ends,
And 'for better and for worse'
Is that she may gain your purse,
Like the ever-changing sea,
Constant in inconstancy,

This hour you're teazed, you're teazed, and vexed,
Soothed and courted all the next:
Now 'tis joy, and then 'tis sorrow,
Hate to-day and love to-morrow,
Coax and fawn, caress and smile,
And deceive you all the while:
They all are witches by this light,
And so I fairly bid 'em and the world good night.





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