Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PENELOPE'S WEB: BARMENISSA'S SONG, by ROBERT GREENE Poet's Biography First Line: The stately state that wise men count their good Last Line: With patience lows thee quiet and delight. Variant Title(s): Content Subject(s): Contentment; Courts & Courtiers; Fortune; Happiness; Royal Court Life; Royalty; Kings; Queens; Joy; Delight | ||||||||
The stately state that wise men count their good: The chiefest bliss that lulls asleep desire Is not descent from kings and princely blood, Ne stately Crown ambition doth require, For birth by fortune is abased down, And perils are comprised within a Crown. The Sceptre and the glittering pomp of mace, The head impaled with honour and renown, The Kingly throne, the seat and regal place, Are toys that fade when angry fortune frown. Content is far from such delights as those, Whom woe and danger do envy as foes. The Cottage seated in the hollow dale, That fortune never fears, because so low, The quiet mind that want doth set to sale Sleeps safe when Princes seats do overthrow: Want smiles secure, when princely thoughts do feel That fear and danger treads upon their heel. Bless fortune thou whose frown hath wrought thy good: Bid farewell to the Crown that ends thy care, The happy fates thy sorrows have withstood, By signing want and poverty thy share. For now content (fond fortune to despite) With patience lows thee quiet and delight. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE STUDY OF HAPPINESS by KENNETH KOCH SO MUCH HAPPINESS by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE CROWD CONDITIONS by JOHN ASHBERY I WILL NOT BE CLAIMED by MARVIN BELL THE BOOK OF THE DEAD MAN (#21): 1. ABOUT THE DEAD MAN'S HAPPINESS by MARVIN BELL A FAREWELL TO FOLLY: CONTENT by ROBERT GREENE |
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