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Fulke Greville
1554 -1628

Sonnet 104

O false and treacherous Probability
Enemy of truth, and friend to wickedness
With whose bleak eyes Opinion learns to see
Truth’s feeble party here, and barrenness
When thou hast thus misled Humanity
And lost obedience in the pride of Wit
With reason dar’st thou judge the Deity
And in thy flesh make bold to fashion it.
Vain thoght, the word of Power riddle is
And till the vails be rent, the flesh new-born
Reveals no wonders of the inward bliss
Which but were faith is everywhere finds scorn
Who therefore censures God with fleshly spirit
As well in time may wrap up infinite

Poem 86

THE earth with thunder torn, with fire blasted,
With waters dron'd, with windy palsy shaken,
Cannot for this with heaven be distast'd,
Since thunder, rain, and winds from earth are taken;
Man torn with love, with inward furies blasted,
Drown'd with despair, with fleshly lustings shaken,
Cannot for this with heaven be distast'd;
Love, fury, lustings out of man are taken.
Then, man, endure thyself, those clouds will vanish;
Life is a top which whipping sorrow driveth;
Wisdom must bear what our flesh cannot banish.
The humble lead, the stubborn bootless striveth.
Or, man, forsake thyself, to heaven turn thee,
Her flames enlighten nature, never burn thee.

Sonnet 87

When as Mans life, the light of human lust,
In socket of his earthly lanthorne burnes,
That all this glory unto ashes must,
And generation to corruption turnes;
Then fond desires that onely feare their end,
Doe vainely wish for life, but to amend.
But when this life is from the body fled,
To see it selfe in that eternall glasse,
Where time doth end, and thoughts accuse the dead,
Where all to come, is one with all that was;
Then living men aske how he left his breath,
That while he lived never thought of death.

Man, dreame no more of curious mysteries,
As what was here before the world was made,
The first Mans life; the state of Paradise,
Where heaven is, or hells eternall shade,
For Gods works are like him, all infinite;
And curious search, but craftie sinnes delight.
The Flood that did, and dreadfull Fire that shall,
Drowne, and burne up the malice of the earth,
The divers tongues, and Babylons down~fall,
Are nothing to the mans renewed birth;
First, let the Law plough up thy vicked heart,
That Christ may come, and all these types depart.
When thou hast swept the house that all is cleare,
When thou the dust hast shaken from thy feete,
When Gods All-might doth in thy flesh appear;
When Seas with streames above the skye doe meet
For Goodnesse oncly doth God comprehend~
Knowes what was first, and what shall be the end.

© 2000 Elena and Yacov Feldman