Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/189

Rh

’Tis reason all unreasonable,

A raving madman, calm and stable;

A peril sweet, delightful fear,

A heavy burden light to bear,

Charybdis perilous and dread,

Horror to sweetest softness wed,

’Tis sickness wrapped in rudest health,

One sound, who haileth pain as wealth;

’Tis hunger overdone with meat,

’Tis covetousness with gold replete;

’Tis one, who sated, cries for drink,

’Tis thirst that doth from water shrink;

’Tis sadness gay, ’tis joyance sad,

’Tis calm contentment raving mad;

’Tis evil good, ’tis good malign,

’Tis odour sweet that savoureth swine;

’Tis holiness made up of sin,

’Tis crime that paradise may win;

A torment full of sweet delight,

A felon outrage pure and bright;

A game of hazard, constant never,

Ever the same, yet changing ever;

Weakness it is as Samson strong,

Doing the right for sake of wrong;

’Tis mighty strength devoid of force,

Yet strong enough to stay the course

Of Phœbus; folly wondrous wise

It is, and joy that mirth defies;

’Tis laughter fraught with sighs and tears,

Repose that knows no rest for years;

’Tis hell endowed with sweetest bliss,

’Tis heaven, a heap of miseries,