Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE ORPHARION: ORPHEUS' SONG, by ROBERT GREENE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE ORPHARION: ORPHEUS' SONG, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: He that did sing the motions of the stars
Last Line: To take in love and lose it with a wink.
Subject(s): Deception; Love - Complaints; Love - Loss Of; Marriage; Mythology - Classical; Orpheus; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


HE that did sing the motions of the stars,
Pale-colour'd Phœbe's borrowing of her light,
Aspects of planets oft oppos'd in jars,
Of Hesper, henchman to the day and night;
Sings now of love, as taught by proof to sing,
Women are false, and love a bitter thing.

I lov'd Eurydice, the brightest lass,
More fond to like so fair a nymph as she;
In Thessaly so bright none ever was,
But fair and constant hardly may agree:
False-hearted wife to him that lov'd thee well,
To leave thy love, and choose the prince of hell;

Theseus did help, and I in haste did hie
To Pluto, for the lass I lovèd so:
The god made grant, and who so glad as I?
I tun'd my harp, and she and I gan go;
Glad that my love was left to me alone,
I lookèd back,—Eurydice was gone.

She slipp'd aside, back to her latest love;
Unkind, she wrong'd her first and truest fere:
Thus women's loves delight, as trial proves
By false Eurydice I lov'd so dear,
To change and fleet, and every way to shrink,
To take in love and lose it with a wink.





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