Farewell to the Court; before 1593. VIII. Sir Walter Raleigh. 1892. Poems

Sir Walter Raleigh (1554?–1618). Poems. 1892.

VIII.

Farewell to the Court; before 1593


LIKE truthless dreams, so are my joys expired,
And past return are all my dandled days,
My love misled, and fancy quite retired;
Of all which past, the sorrow only stays.

My lost delights, now clean from sight of land,	5
Have left me all alone in unknown ways,
My mind to woe, my life in fortune’s hand;
Of all which past, the sorrow only stays.

As in a country strange without companion,
I only wail the wrong of death’s delays,	10
Whose sweet spring spent, whose summer well nigh done;
Of all which past, the sorrow only stays;

Whom care forewarns, ere age and winter cold,
To haste me hence to find my fortune’s fold.