| Sir Walter Raleigh (1554?–1618). Poems. 1892. | | | | XXV. | | No Pleasure without Pain; before 1576 |
| | | SWEET were the joys that both might like and last; | |
| Strange were the state exempt from all distress; | |
| Happy the life that no mishap should taste; | |
| Blessed the chance might never change success. | |
| Were such a life to lead or state to prove, | 5 |
| Who would not wish that such a life were love? | |
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| But oh! the soury sauce of sweet unsure, | |
| When pleasures flit, and fly with waste of wind. | |
| The trustless trains that hoping hearts allure, | |
| When sweet delights do but allure the mind; | 10 |
| When care consumes and wastes the wretched wight, | |
| While fancy feeds and draws of her delight. | |
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| What life were love, if love were free from pain? | |
| But oh that pain with pleasure matched should meet! | |
| Why did the course of nature so ordain | 15 |
| That sugared sour must sauce the bitter sweet? | |
| Which sour from sweet might any means remove, | |
| What hap, what heaven, what life, were like to love! | | | | |
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