A day, a night, an hour of sweet content Is worth a world consumed in fretful care. Unequal Gods! in your arbitrament To sort us days whose sorrows endless are! And yet what were it, as a fading flower, To swim in bliss a day, a night, and hour? What plague is greater than the grief of mind? The grief of mind that eats in every vein, In every vein that leaves such clods behind, Such clods behind as breed such bitter pain, So bitter pain that none shall ever find, What plague is greater than the grief of mind. Doth sorrow fret thy soul? O direful spirit! Doth pleasure feed thy heart? O blessed man! Hast thou been happy once? O heavy plight! Are thy mishaps forepassed? O happy then! Or hast thou bliss in eld? O bliss too late! But hast thou bliss in youth? O sweet estate! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...NIOBE: THE GODS' CHILDREN by AESCHYLUS A PRESENCE by KENNETH SLADE ALLING THE ARGONAUTS (ARGONAUTICA): THE SAILING OF THE ARGO by APOLLONIUS RHODIUS PSALM 38. DOMINE NE IN FURORE by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE THE HEBREW MIND by M. L. R. BRESLAR THE RING AND THE BOOK: BOOK 8. DOMINUS HYACINTHUS ... by ROBERT BROWNING |