Black is the beauty of the brightest day, <br />The golden belle of heaven's eternal fire, <br />That danced with glory on the silver waves, <br />Now wants the fuel that inflamed his beams: <br />And all with faintness and for foul disgrace, <br />He binds his temples with a frowning cloud, <br />Ready to darken earth with endless night: <br />Zenocrate that gave him light and life, <br />Whose eyes shot fire from their ivory bowers, <br />And tempered every soul with lively heat, <br />Now by the malice of the angry skies, <br />Whose jealousy admits no second mate, <br />Draws in the comfort of her latest breath <br />All dazzled with the hellish mists of death. <br />Now walk the angels on the walls of heaven, <br />As sentinels to warn th'immortal souls, <br />To entertain divine Zenocrate. <br />Apollo, Cynthia, and the ceaseless lamps <br />That gently looked upon this loathsome earth, <br />Shine downwards now no more, but deck the heavens <br />To entertain divine Zenocrate. <br />The crystal springs whose taste illuminates <br />Refined eyes with an eternal sight, <br />Like tried silver runs through Paradise <br />To entertain divine Zenocrate. <br />The Cherubins and holy Seraphins <br />That sing and play before the King of Kings, <br />Use all their voices and their instruments <br />To entertain divine Zenocrate. <br />And in this sweet and curious harmony, <br />The God that tunes this music to our souls, <br />Holds out his hand in highest majesty <br />To entertain divine Zenocrate. <br />Then let some holy trance convey my thoughts, <br />Up to the palace of th'imperial heaven: <br />That this my life may be as short to me <br />As are the days of sweet Zenocrate.<br /><br />Christopher Marlowe<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/lament-for-zenocrate/
