Classic Poem

The day delayed, of that I most do wish,
Wherewith I feed and starve in one degree:
With wish and want still served in one dish,
Alive as dead by proof as you may see.
To whom of old this proverb well it serves,
While grass doth grow, the seely horse he starves.

'Tween these extremes thus do I run the race
Of my poor life, this certainly I know:
'Tween would and want, unwarily that do pass
More swift than shot out of the archer's bow.
As spider draws her line
As spider draws hr
As spider draws her line in vain all day,
I watch the net and others have the prey.

And as by proof, the greedy dog doth gnaw
The barèd bone all only for the taste,
So to and fro this loathsome life I draw,
With fancies forced and fed with vain repast.
Narcissus brought unto the water brink,
So aye thirst I the more that I do drink.

Lo thus I die, and yet I seem not sick,
With smart unseen myself, myself I wear
With prone desire and power that is not quick,
With hope aloft now drenched in dispair.
Trainèd in trust for no reward assigned;
The more I haste the more I come behind.

With hurt to heal, in frozen ice to fry,
With loss to laugh, this is a wonderous case;
Fast fettered here is forced away to fly,
As hunted hare that hound hath in chase.
With wings and spurs for all the haste I make
As like to lose as for to draw the stake.

The days be long that hang upon desert,
The life is irk of joys that be delayed.
The time is short for to requite the smart
That doth proceed of promise long unpaid
That to the last of this my fainting breath,
I wish to exchange of life for happy death.