English Poetry I: From Chaucer to Gray.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
| |
| 197. The Problem |
| | | William Drummond (1585–1649) |
| |
| |
| DOTH then the world go thus, doth all thus move? | |
| Is this the justice which on Earth we find? | |
| Is this that firm decree which all doth bind? | |
| Are these your influences, Powers above? | |
| Those souls which vice’s moody mists most blind, | 5 |
| Blind Fortune, blindly, most their friend doth prove; | |
| And they who thee, poor idol Virtue! love, | |
| Ply like a feather toss’d by storm and wind. | |
| Ah! if a Providence doth sway this all | |
| Why should best minds groan under most distress? | 10 |
| Or why should pride humility make thrall, | |
| And injuries the innocent oppress? | |
| Heavens! hinder, stop this fate; or grant a time | |
| When good may have, as well as bad, their prime! | |
| |
|
|
|
