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[Page 305][Page 306][Page 307]
THE MAN OF SORROW.
1 AH! what avails the lengthening mead,
2 By Nature's kindest bounty spread
3 Along the vale of flowers!
4 Ah! what avails the darkening grove,
5 Or Philomel's melodious love,
6 That glads the midnight hours!
7 For me (alas!) the god of day
8 Ne'er glitters on the hawthorn spray,
9 Nor night her comfort brings:
10 I have no pleasure in the rose:
11 For me no vernal beauty blows,
12 Nor Philomela sings.
13 See, how the sturdy peasants stride,
14 Adown yon hillock's verdant side,
15 In chearful ignorance blest!
16 Alike to them the rose or thorn,
17 Alike arises every morn,
18 By gay Contentment drest.
19 Content, fair daughter of the skies,
20 Or gives spontaneous, or denies,
21 Her choice divinely free,
22 She visits oft the hamlet-cot,
23 When Want and Sorrow are the lot
24 Of Avarice and me.
25 But see — or is it Fancy's dream?
26 Methought a bright celestial gleam
27 Shot sudden thro' the groves,
28 Behold, behold, in loose array,
29 Euphrosyne more bright than day,
30 More mild than Paphian doves!
31 Welcome, O! welcome, Pleasure's queen!
32 And see, along the velvet green,
33 The jocund train advance:
34 With scatter'd flowers they fill the air,
35 The wood-nymph's dew-bespangled hair
36 Plays in the sportive dance.
37 Ah! baneful grant of angry heaven,
38 When to the feeling wretch is given
39 A soul alive to joy!
40 Joys fly with every hour away,
41 And leave th' unguarded heart a prey
42 To cares, that Peace destroy.
43 And see, with visionary haste,
44 (Too soon the gay delusion past)
45 Reality remains!
46 Despair has seiz'd my captive soul,
47 And Horror drives without controul,
48 And slackens still the reins.
49 Ten thousand beauties round me throng,
50 What beauties, say, ye nymphs, belong
51 To the distemper'd soul?
52 I see the lawn of hideous dye,
53 The towering elm nods misery,
54 With groans the waters roll.
55 Ye gilded roofs, Palladian domes,
56 Ye vivid tints of Persia's looms,
57 Ye were for misery made —
58 'Twas thus the Man of Sorrow spoke,
59 His wayward step then pensive took
60 Along th' unhailow'd shade.
About this text
Author: Fulke Greville
Themes:
grief; sadness; melancholy; nature
Genres:
References:
DMI 28328
Text view / Document view
Source edition
Pearch, G. A collection of poems in four volumes. By several hands. Vol. I. [The second edition]. London: printed for G. Pearch, 1770, pp. 305-307. 4v. ; 8⁰. (ESTC T116245; DMI 1122; OTA K093079.001) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [(OC) 280 o.788].)
Editorial principles
The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.