Classic Poem

Like as the rage of rain
Fills rivers with excess,
And as the drought again
Doth draw them less and less,
So I both fall and climb
With ‘no’ and ‘yea’ sometime.

As they swell high and high,
So doth increase my state;
As they fall dry and dry,
So doth my wealth abate;
As ‘yea’ is mixed with ‘no,’
So mirth is mixed with woe.

As nothing can endure,
That lives and lacks relief;
So nothing can stand sure
Where change doth reign as chief:
Wherefore I must intend
To bow when others bend;

And when they laugh, to smile;
And when they weep, to wail;
And when they craft, beguile;
And when they fight, assail;
And think there is no change
Can make them seem too strange.

Oh, most unhappy slave!
What man may lead this course—
To lack he would fainest have,
Or else to do much worse?
These be rewards for such
As live and love too much.