Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume III. Sorrow and Consolation. 1904. | | | | III. Adversity | | “Hence, all ye vain delights” | | John Fletcher (1579–1625) |
| | From “The Nice Valour,” Act III. Sc. 3.
HENCE, all ye vain delights, | |
| As short as are the nights | |
| Wherein you spend your folly! | |
| There ’s naught in this life sweet, | |
| If man were wise to see ’t | 5 |
| But only melancholy, | |
| O, sweetest melancholy! | |
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| Welcome, folded arms, and fixèd eyes, | |
| A sigh that piercing mortifies, | |
| A look that ’s fastened to the ground, | 10 |
| A tongue chained up without a sound! | |
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| Fountain-heads and pathless groves, | |
| Places which pale passion loves! | |
| Moonlight walks, when all the fowls | |
| Are warmly housed save bats and owls! | 15 |
| A midnight bell, a parting groan! | |
| These are the sounds we feed upon; | |
| Then stretch our bones in a still gloomy valley: | |
| Nothing ’s so dainty sweet as lovely melancholy. | | | | |
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