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Home  »  Parnassus  »  Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599)

Ralph Waldo Emerson, comp. (1803–1882). Parnassus: An Anthology of Poetry. 1880.

Spenser at Court

Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599)

(See full text.)

FULL little knowest thou, that hast not tried,

What hell it is, in suing long to bide:

To loose good dayes that might be better spent;

To waste long nights in pensive discontent;

To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow;

To feed on hope, to pine with feare and sorrow;

To have thy prince’s grace, yet want her peers;

To have thy asking, yet waite many yeares;

To fret thy soule with crosses and with cares;

To eate thy heart through comfortless despairs;

To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to run,

To spend, to give, to want, to be undone.