Classic Poem

While I lamented thus my griefs aloud,
Knowing no doctor who my woes could heal,
Reason I saw returning straight to me,
Descending from her tower at my complaint.
" Fair friend, " the sweet and gracious lady said,
" How goes the battle? Are you ready now
To leave off loving? Have you had enough?
What think you now of the effects of love?
Are they too bitter or too sweet for you?
Wise enough are you now to choose the means
Sufficient for your aid? Fine lord you serve,
Who has accepted and apprenticed you
And yet torments you ceaselessly. The day
You homage paid to him was evil starred.
You were a fool when you got into this;
You knew not with what lord you had to deal.
You'd never have been his if you had known.
You'd not have served a summer or a day
Or even an hour before you had renounced,
Without delay, his service and his love.
Do you yet know the man? "
" Lady, I do! "
" That is not true! "
" It is! "
" Why think you so? "
" Because he said, " You should be proud to have
So good a master, lord of such renown." "
" Know you no more of him than that? "
" Not I,
Except that he gave me his rules, and fled
More swift than eagle — left me in suspense. "
" Poor knowledge, certainly! But now I'll give
You better knowing of the one who brewed
Such agonizing drink for you that now
You're quite disfigured. No unfortunate
And caitiff wretch could greater burdens bear
Than you seem to have borne. 'Twere right that you
Know well the lord you serve, and when you do
You'll issue from the prison where you pine. "
" Lady, since he's my lord and I'm his liege,
Most willingly my heart would hear and learn
His nature, if I found one who could teach. "
" Now, by my head, I'll undertake to show
You all your heart is ripe to understand.
Although the truth be not demonstrable,
I'll give it to you without fallacy.
Although uneducated, you shall learn;
Though inexperienced, you'll quickly grasp
That which can not be proved by syllogism.
This do I know about the God of Love:
No other means to end his dole but flight
Has any man who gives his heart to him;
Thus may you cut the knot that you have tied.
To hear me love describe now set your mind.
" Love is a troubled peace, an amorous war —
A treasonous loyalty, disloyal faith —
A fear that's full of hope, a desperate trust —
A madman's logic, reasoned foolishness —
A pleasant peril in which one may drown —
A heavy burden that is light to bear —
Charybdis gracious, threatening overthrow —
A healthy sickness and most languorous health —
A famine swallowed up in gluttony —
A miserly sufficiency of gold —
A drunken thirst, a thirsty drunkenness —
A sadness gay, a frolicsomeness sad —
Contentment that is full of vain complaints —
A soft malignity, softness malign —
A bitter sweetness, a sweet-tasting gall —
A sinful pardon, and a pardoned sin —
A joyful pain — a pious felony —
A game of hazard, ne'er dependable —
A state at once too movable, too firm —
An infirm strength, a mighty feebleness
Which in its struggles moves the very world —
A foolish wisdom, a wise foolishness;
It is prosperity both glum and gay —
A laughter full of sighs and full of tears —
Laborious repose by day and night —
A happy Hell, a saddened Paradise —
A prison which delights its prisoners —
A springtime mantled yet with winter's snow —
A moth that feeds on frieze as well as silk,
For love lives just as well in coarsest clothes
As in a diaper material.
No man is found so highborn or so wise,
No man of such proved strength and hardiness,
No man of other qualities so good
That Love could never conquer him. The God
Of Love misleads them all; all go his way,
Except they be of evil life, cast out
By Genius, in that they have Nature wronged.
I have no care for these, but nevertheless
Would have no person love with such a flame
That in the end he must himself admit
Himself to be unhappy, cheated, grieved,
So much he has been fooled by Love. If now
You wish well to accomplish your escape,
From all Love's grievances to be well cured,
No better potion can you drink than flight;
No elsewise can you happiness enjoy.
Follow Love, and he will you pursue;
Avoid him, and away from you he'll flee. "
When I'd heard Reason thus in vain debate,
I said, " My lady, I now know no more
Than hitherto, that might deliver me.
Contrariwise, I understand no whit
(Although I know the lesson all by heart,
So that I can't forget it, having learned
It from you) that applies in fact to me.
Although you have so well this love described,
Praising and blaming it, you've not defined.
I pray that you'll a definition give
That I may understand what love may mean. "
" Right readily; I pray that you'll give heed.
If I know anything of love, it is
Imaginary illness freely spread
Between two persons of opposing sex,
Originating from disordered sight,
Producing great desire to hug and kiss
And seek enjoyment in a mutual lust.
Love cares for nothing but such ardent joys,
For delectation, not engendering,
Is all the end of love. Some men there are
Who value such a passion not at all
Yet feign themselves true lovers, and disdain
To love for love itself, but ladies mock
When they their bodies and their souls pretend
To give to those most apt to be deceived.
They swear to fictions till their lust's fulfilled;
Nor can you say that they deceive themselves,
For better 'tis to fool than to be fooled,
Especially when there's no other way.
Although no theologian, I know
That every man who with a woman lies
Should wish, as best he may, to procreate
The tenement for an immortal soul,
So that the race's succession may not fail
When he shall go his way to dusty death;
For when the parents die 'tis Nature's wish
That they leave children to perpetuate
Their likeness, and refill the void they've left.
Nature has made the task a pleasant one
So that the laborers may like the work
And not be bored and so avoid the job;
For some of them would never lift a tool
But for the pleasure that entices them.
Thus Nature subtly works. But none do right
Who more their pleasure than her ends intend.
What do they do who but of raptures think?
They give themselves as foolish serfs and thralls
Unto the hellish prince of all iniquity. "