Love
I joy not in no earthly bliss
From Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age, ed. A. H. Bullen (London: Nimmo, 1891)
I joy not in no earthly bliss,
I force not Croesus' wealth a straw;
For care I know not what it is
I fear not Fortune's fatal law:
My mind is such as may not move
For beauty bright nor force of love.
I wish but what I have at will,
I wander not to seek for more;
I like the plain, I climb no hill;
In greatest storms I sit on shore
And laugh at them that toil in vain
To get what must be lost again.
I kiss not where I wish to kill;
I feign not love where most I hate;
I break no sleep to win my will;
I wait not at the mighty's gate;
I scorn no poor, nor fear no rich;
I feel no want, nor have too much.
The court and cart I like nor loath;
Extremes are counted worst of all;
The golden mean between them both
Doth surest sit and fears no fall.
This is my choice: for why? I find
No wealth is like the quiet mind.
Codex Note
From William Byrd's Psalms, Sonnets, and Songs of Sadness and Piety, 1588.
Cite this poem
MLA
Anonymous (Elizabethan songs). “I joy not in no earthly bliss.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-songs/52/.
Chicago
Anonymous (Elizabethan songs). “I joy not in no earthly bliss.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-songs/52/.
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