THE FAERIE QUEENE by Edmund Spenser TO The ... - Planet.ee

www.TaleBooks.comAn huge eternall Chaos, which supplyesThe substaunces of natures fruitful progenyes.XXXVII. All things from thence doe their first being fetch,And borrow matter whereof they are made;Which, whenas forme and feature it does ketch,Becomes a body, and doth then invadeThe state of life out of the griesly shade.That substaunce is eterne, and bideth so;Ne when the life decayes and forme does fade,Doth it consume and into nothing goe,But chaunged is, and often altred to and froe.XXXVIII. The substaunce is not chaungd nor altered,But th' only forme and outward fashion;For every substaunce is conditionedTo chaunge her hew, and sondry formes to don,Meet for her temper and complexion:For formes are variable, and decayBy course of kinde and by occasion;And that faire flowre of beautie fades away,As doth the lilly fresh before the sunny ray.XXXIX. Great enimy to it, and to all the restThat in the Gardin of Adonis springs,Is wicked Tyme; who with his scyth addrestDoes mow the flowring herbes and goodly things,And all their glory to the ground downe flings,Where they do wither, and are fowly mard:He flyes about, and with his flaggy wingesBeates downe both leaves and buds without regard,Ne ever pitty may relent his malice hard.XL. Yet pitty often did the gods relent,To see so faire thinges mard and spoiled quight;And their great mother Venus did lamentThe losse of her deare brood, her deare delight:Her hart was pierst with pitty at the sight,When walking through the Gardin them she saw,Yet no'te she find redresse for such despight:For all that lives is subject to that law;All things decay in time, and to their end doe draw.XLI. But were it not that Time their troubler is,All that in this delightfull Gardin growesShould happy bee, and have immortall blis:For here all plenty and all pleasure flowes;And sweete love gentle fitts emongst them throwes,Without fell rancor or fond gealosy.Franckly each Paramor his leman knowes,Each bird his mate; ne any does envyTheir goodly meriment and gay felicity.XLII. There is continuall Spring, and harvest thereContinuall, both meeting at one tyme;Page 322 , Faerie Queene, The - Edmund Spenser