Like as the spotless ermelin distressed, Circumpass'd round with filth and loathsome mud, Pines in her grief, imprisoned in her nest, And cannot issue forth to seek her good: So I, environed with a hateful want, Look to the heav'ns, the heav'ns yield forth no grace; I search the earth, the earth I find as scant; I view myself, myself in woeful case. Heav'n nor earth will not, myself cannot, work A way through want to free my soul from care; But I must pine, and in my pining lurk, Lest my sad looks bewray me how I fare. My fortune, mantled with a cloud s' obscure, Thus shades my life so long as wants endure. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PARTING AT MORNING by ROBERT BROWNING SESTINA: 1. OF THE LADY PIETRA DEGLI SCROVIGNI by DANTE ALIGHIERI WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL SONNET: 16. TO THE LORD GENERAL CROMWELL, MAY 1652 by JOHN MILTON |