EMBLEM.
A FLOWER GARDEN WITH SUNSHINE AND RAIN.
When all the year our fields are fresh and green,
And while sweet flowers and sunshine every day,
As oft as need requireth, come between
The heav’ns and earth, they heedless pass away.
The fullness and continuance of a blessing
Do make us to be senseless of the good;
And if it sometime fly not our possessing,
The sweetness of it is not understood.
Had we no winter, summer would be thought
Not half so pleasing; and if tempests were not,
Such comforts could not by a calm be brought;
For things, save by their opposites, appear not.
Both health and wealth are tasteless unto some;
And so is ease, and every other pleasure,
Till poor, or rich, or grieved they become;
And then they relish these in ampler measure.
God, therefore, full as kind as he is wise,
So tempereth all the favors he will do us,
That we his bounties may the better prize,
And make his chastisements less bitter to us.
One while a scorching indignation burns
The flowers and blossoms of our hopes away,
Which into scarcity our plenty turns,
And changeth unmown grass to parched hay;
Anon his fruitful showers and pleasing dews,
Commixt with cheerful rays, he sendeth down;
And then the barren earth her crop renews,
Which with rich harvests hills and valleys crown:
For, as to relish joys he sorrow sends,
So comfort on temptation still attends.
George Wither, 1588–1667.