| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Sonnets and Poetical Translations | | XI. You better sure shall live, not evermore | | Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586) |
| | Translated from HORACE, which begins Rectius vives |
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YOU better sure shall live, not evermore | |
| Trying high seas; nor while seas rage, you flee, | |
| Pressing too much upon ill harboured shore. | |
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| The golden mean who loves, lives safely free | |
| From filth of foresworn house; and quiet lives, | 5 |
| Released from Court, where envy needs must be. | |
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| The winds most oft the hugest pine tree grieves; | |
| The stately towers come down with greater fall; | |
| The highest hills, the bolt of thunder cleaves. | |
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| Evil haps do fill with hope; good haps appal | 10 |
| With fear of change, the courage well prepared: | |
| Foul winters, as they come; away, they shall! | |
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| Though present times and past with evils be snared, | |
| They shall not last: with cithern, silent Muse, | |
| APOLLO wakes; and bow, hath sometimes spared. | 15 |
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| In hard estate; with stout show, valour use! | |
| The same man still, in whom wise doom prevails, | |
| In too full wind, draw in thy swelling sails! | | | |
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