Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PERIMEDES, THE BLACKSMITH: DITTY, by ROBERT GREENE Poet's Biography First Line: Obscure and dark is all the gloomy air Last Line: Black discontent doth make her bad repair. Subject(s): Mythology; Night; Bedtime | ||||||||
OBSCURE and dark is all the gloomy air, The curtain of the night is overspread; The silent mistress of the lowest sphere Puts on her sable-colour'd veil and lours. Nor star, nor milk-white circle of the sky, Appears, where Discontent doth hold her lodge. She sits shrin'd in a canopy of clouds, Whose massy darkness mazeth every sense. Wan are her looks, her cheeks of azure hue; Her hairs as Gorgon's foul retorting snakes; Envy the glass wherein the hag doth gaze; Restless the clock that chimes her fast asleep; Disquiet thoughts the minutes of her watch. Forth from her cave the fiend full oft doth fly: To kings she goes, and troubles them with crowns, Setting those high-aspiring brands on fire, That flame from earth unto the seat of Jove; To such as Midas, men that dote on wealth, And rent the bowels of the middle earth For coin, who gape, as did fair Danaë, For showers of gold,there Discontent in black Throws forth the vials of her restless cares; To such as sit at Paphos for relief, And offer Venus many solemn vows; To such as Hymen in his saffron robe Hath knit a Gordian knot of passions; To these, to all, parting the gloomy air, Black Discontent doth make her bad repair. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BREATH OF NIGHT by RANDALL JARRELL HOODED NIGHT by ROBINSON JEFFERS NIGHT WITHOUT SLEEP by ROBINSON JEFFERS WORKING OUTSIDE AT NIGHT by DENIS JOHNSON POEM TO TAKE BACK THE NIGHT by JUNE JORDAN COOL DARK ODE by DONALD JUSTICE POEM TO BE READ AT 3 A.M by DONALD JUSTICE ROUND ABOUT MIDNIGHT by BOB KAUFMAN A FAREWELL TO FOLLY: CONTENT by ROBERT GREENE |
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