Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AN INVECTIVE AGAINST LOVE, by ANONYMOUS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AN INVECTIVE AGAINST LOVE, by                    
First Line: All is not golde that shineth bright in show
Last Line: So flatt'ring lookes the lover's life doth spill
Subject(s): Love - Complaints


ALL is not golde that shineth bright in show,
Not euery floure good, as faire to sight,
The deepest streames aboue doe calmest flow,
And strongest poisons oft the taste delight.
The pleasant baite doth hide the harmfull hooke,
And false deceit can lend a friendly looke.

Loue is the gold whose outward hew doth passe,
Whose first beginnings goodly promise make
Of pleasures faire, and fresh as Sommer's grasse,
Which neither sunne can parch nor wind can shake;
But when the mould should in the fire be tride,
The gold is gone, the drosse doth still abide.

Beautie, the floure so fresh, so faire, so gay,
So sweet to smell, so soft to touch and tast;
As seemes it should endure by right for aye,
And neuer be with any storme defast;
But when the baleful southerne wind doth blow,
Gone is the glory which it erst did show.

Loue is the streame, whose waues so calmly flow
As might intice men's minds to wade therein;
Loue is the poison mixt with sugar so,
As might by outward sweetnesse liking win,
But as the deepe o'erflowing stops thy breath
So poyson once receiu'd brings certaine death.

Loue is the baite, whose taste the fish deceiues,
And makes them swallow down the choking hooke;
Loue is the face whose fairnesse iudgement reaues,
And makes thee trust a false and fainèd looke;
But as the hooke the foolish fish doth kill,
So flatt'ring lookes the lover's life doth spill.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net