Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TRANSIT MUNDUS, by PIERRE DE RONSARD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TRANSIT MUNDUS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Another winter comes. The last comes soon, I know
Last Line: Though after me one come, and take the abandoned place.
Subject(s): Courts & Courtiers; Fortune; France; Life; Moon; Winter


ANOTHER Winter comes. The last comes soon, I know.
For six and fifty years have blanched my head with snow.
The time is here to say, Farewell, to love and song,
And take my leave of life's best days, for oh! how long! . . .

Yet I have lived. So much stands safe beyond recall.
I grudge not life its joys. I have tasted one and all,
Nor e'er refrained my hand from pleasures within reach,
Save but as Reason set due measure unto each.
The part assigned me I have played on this life's stage
In costume fitted to the times and to my age.

I've seen the morning dawn, and evening come again.
I've seen the storm, the lightning-flash, the hail, the rain.
Peoples I've seen, and kings! -- For twenty years now past
I've seen each day rise upon France as though her last.

Wars I have seen, and strife of words, and terms of truce
First made and then unmade again, then made by ruse
To break and make again! . . . I've seen that neath the moon
All was but change and chance, and danced to Fortune's tune.
Though man seek Prudence out for guide, it boots him naught;
Fate ineluctable doth hold him chained and caught,
Bound hand and foot, in prison; and all he may propose
Fortune and Fate, wisely mayhap, themselves dispose.

Full-feasted of the world, even as a wedding-guest
Goes from the banquet-hall, I go to my long rest;
As from a king's great feast, I go not with ill grace
Though after me one come, and take the abandoned place.





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