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

Contrarities of Love ’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;4590
’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;4600
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;4610
’Tis hell endowed with sweetest bliss,
’Tis heaven, a heap of miseries,