| |
| THE LOPPED tree in time may grow again; | |
| Most naked plants renew both fruit and flower; | |
| The sorest wight may find release of pain, | |
| The driest soil suck in some moist’ning shower; | |
| Times go by turns and chances change by course, | 5 |
| From foul to fair, from better hap to worse. | |
| |
| The sea of Fortune doth not ever flow, | |
| She draws her favors to the lowest ebb; | |
| Her time hath equal times to come and go, | |
| Her loom doth weave the fine and coarsest web; | 10 |
| No joy so great but runneth to an end, | |
| No hap so hard but may in fine amend. | |
| |
| Not always fall of leaf nor ever spring, | |
| No endless night yet not eternal day; | |
| The saddest birds a season find to sing, | 15 |
| The roughest storm a calm may soon allay; | |
| Thus with succeeding turns God tempereth all, | |
| That man may hope to rise yet fear to fall. | |
| |
| A chance may win that by mischance was lost; | |
| The well that holds no great, takes little fish; | 20 |
| In some things all, in all things none are crossed, | |
| Few all they need, but none have all they wish; | |
| Unmeddled joys here to no man befall, | |
| Who least hath some, who most hath never all. | |
| |
