| THE loppèd tree in time may grow again, |
|
| Most naked plants renew both fruit and flower; |
|
| The sorest wight may find release of pain, |
|
| The driest soil suck in some moist’ning shower; |
|
| Times go by turns and chances change by course, |
5 |
| From foul to fair, from better hap to worse. |
|
|
| The sea of Fortune doth not ever flow, |
|
| She draws her favours to the lowest ebb; |
|
| Her tides hath equal times to come and go, |
|
| Her loom doth weave the fine and coarsest web; |
10 |
| No joy so great but runneth to an end, |
|
| No hap so hard but may in fine amend. |
|
|
| Not always fall of leaf nor ever spring, |
|
| No endless night yet not eternal day; |
|
| The saddest birds a season find to sing, |
15 |
| The roughest storm a calm may soon allay: |
|
| Thus with succeeding turns God tempereth all, |
|
| That man may hope to rise, yet fear to fall. |
|
|
| A chance may win that by mischance was lost; |
|
| The net that holds no great, takes little fish; |
20 |
| In some things all, in all things none are crost, |
|
| Few all they need, but none have all they wish; |
|
| Unmeddled joys here to no man befall: |
|
| Who least, hath some; who most, hath never all. |
|
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
As they say at Glide https://glide.org/,
A set-back is a set-up for a comeback!
Those words have given hope to so-o many people. And I really think it’s a wise sentiment. There is no success without failure.
I love his poem so much. You shared it with me years ago, and I put it on the wall at Merriam-Webster, for their first-ever Poetry Wall (a tradition I started, I’m proud to say). And, a friend there commented on it and told me about Robert Southwell and how he became a martyr. That friend later became a priest–so the poem has all sorts of resonances for me, and connections with friend.
It really is a wonderful, uplifting, hope-filled poem.
I did not know the poet became a martyr. I do think the poem is hopeful. Even if you are on top and fearing that the wheel will turn you downward, there is still this sense that it’s just the way life is, don’t worry. I love that it started the poetry wall at Merriam-Webster in Springfield!