| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Sonnets after Astrophel, etc. | | Canto quinto: A day, a night, an hour of sweet content | | Anonymous |
| | | A DAY, a night, an hour of sweet content | |
| Is worth a world consumed in fretful care. | |
| Unequal gods! in your arbitrement! | |
| To sort us days whose sorrows endless are! | |
| And yet what were it? as a fading flower; | 5 |
| To swim in bliss a day, a night, an hour. | |
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| What plague is greater than the grief of mind? | |
| The grief of mind that eats in every vein, | |
| In every vein that leads such clods behind, | |
| Such clods behind as breed such bitter pain. | 10 |
| So bitter pain that none shall ever find, | |
| What plague is greater than the grief of mind? | |
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| Doth sorrow fret thy soul? O direful spirit! | |
| Doth pleasure feed thy heart? O blessed man! | |
| Hast thou been happy once? O heavy plight! | 15 |
| Are thy mishaps forepast? O happy then! | |
| Or hast thou bliss in eld? O bliss too late! | |
But hast thou bliss in youth? O sweet estate!
F I N I S. CONTENT. | | | | |
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