All ye that know of care and heaviness, My woeful fate when ye have heard, Then judge the truth in this my great distress, If any woe may be thereto compared; And mark my thought as I shall it express, For cause itself doth neither mar nor make But even as the patient doth it take. I think whoso doth behold my pain Sees the soul of Sorrow grounded in grief, The root of Woe portrayed in pain, The cloud of Care despaired of relief, The loathed life through-darted with Disdain. Sorrow is I, and I even the same, In that all men do call me by that name. When I do cast my careful look downright Upon the ground as though that I would fall, Therein methinks is graven with my sight The picture of my sorrowful thoughts all. Yea, and the worms that appear against the night, As me seems, they think that Death doth much ill To leave me thus to live against my will. Where I do use to lie right secretly Upon a bank over a river clear, So oft I there bewail my destiny That the water disdaineth it to hear And at my weeping takes great envy, Lest the tears that from mine eyes do rain Should cause the fish therein to mourn and plain. Alone when I do walk the woods wand'ring, Utt'ring my care with painful sighs and groans, The birds, which on the boughs sit singing, To hear my cry then cease they all at once, Having great grudge at me and my wailing Because it was so grievous shrill and loud That it stunned their song thorough all the wood. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON COMMUNISTS; EPIGRAM by EBENEZER ELLIOTT SONG OF A SECOND APRIL by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY PETER QUINCE AT THE CLAVIER by WALLACE STEVENS UPON MY LADY CARLISLE'S WALKING IN HAMPTON COURT GARDEN by JOHN SUCKLING DANAIDES: THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND EARTH by AESCHYLUS THE KNIGHTS: DEMOS REJUVENATED by ARISTOPHANES |