John Fletcher (Джон Флетчер)

Melancholy

HENCE, all you vain delights,
  As short as are the nights
  Wherein you spend your folly!
There 's naught in this life sweet,
If men were wise to see't,
  But only melancholy—
  O sweetest melancholy!
Welcome, folded arms and fixèd eyes,
A sight that piercing mortifies,
A look that 's fasten'd to the ground,
A tongue chain'd up without a sound!
 
Fountain-heads and pathless groves,
Places which pale passion loves!
Moonlight walks, when all the fowls
Are warmly housed, save bats and owls!
  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.

John Fletcher’s other poems:

  1. Hear, ye Ladies
  2. Cast Our Caps and Cares Away
  3. Hymn to Pan
  4. Away, Delights
  5. Love’s Emblems

Poems of other poets with the same name (Стихотворения других поэтов с таким же названием):

  • William Broome (Уильям Брум) Melancholy (“Adieu vain Mirth, and noisy Joys!”)

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