Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 34. HOPE AND FEAR by THOMAS CAMPION

Poet Analysis

First Line: IF I HOPE, I PINE; IF I FEAR, I FAINT AND DIE
Last Line: MUST SING GLAD NOTES, OR SPEAK IN HAPPIER VERSE.
Subject(s): HOPE; FEAR;
IF I hope, I pine; if I fear, I faint and die;
So between hope and fear, I desperate lie,
Looking for joy to heaven, whence it should come:
But hope is blind; joy, deaf; and I am dumb

Yet I speak and cry; but, alas, with words of woe:
And joy conceives not them that murmur so.
He that the ears of joy will ever pierce,
Must sing glad notes, or speak in happier verse.



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