Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SONNET: 24. TO THE TUNE OF THE SMOKES OF MELANCHOLY, by PHILIP SIDNEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SONNET: 24. TO THE TUNE OF THE SMOKES OF MELANCHOLY, by                 Poet's Biography
First Line: Who hath ever felt the change of love
Last Line: Yet shall I die in phoenix' fire.


Who hath ever felt the change of love
And known those pangs that the losers prove
May paint my face without seeing me,
And write the state how my fancies be
The loathsome buds grown on sorrow's tree:
But who by hearsay speaks, and hath not fully felt
What kind of fires they be in which those spirits melt
Shall guess, and fail, what doth displease;
Feeling my pulse, miss my disease.

O no, O no; trial only shows
The bitter juice of forsaken woes,
Where former bliss present ills do stain --
Nay, former bliss adds to present pain,
While remembrance doth both states contain.
Come, learners, then, to me, the model of mishap,
Engulfed in despair, slid down from fortune's lap;
And as you like my double lot,
Tread in my steps, or follow not.

For me, alas, I am full resolved
Those bands, alas, shall not be dissolved,
Nor break my word, though reward come late,
Nor fail my faith in my failing fate,
Nor change in change, though change change my state:
But always one myself with eagle-eyed truth to fly
Up to the sun, although the sun my wings do fry:
For if those flames burn my desire,
Yet shall I die in Phoenix' fire.





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