T Campion read by Classic Poetry Aloud: Giving voice to the poetry of the past.

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What if a Day

by Thomas Campion (1567 – 1620)

What if a day, or a month, or a year

Crown thy delights with a thousand sweet contentings?

Cannot a chance of a night or an hour

Cross thy desires with as many sad tormentings?

Fortune, honor, beauty, youth

Are but blossoms dying;

Wanton pleasure, doting love

Are but shadows flying.

All our joys are but toys,

Idle thoughts deceiving;

None have power of an hour

In their lives’ bereaving.

Earth’s but a point to the world, and a man

Is but a point to the world’s compare´d centure;

Shall then the point of a point be so vain

As to triumph in a sely point’s adventure?

As is hazard that we have,

There is nothing biding;

Days of pleasure are like streams

Through fair meadows gliding.

Weal and woe, time doth go,

Time is never turning;

Secret fates guide our states,

Both in mirth and mourning.

First aired: 25 February 2009

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