Thomas Urquhart

Epigrams. The First Booke. ¹ 29. The firme, and determinate resolution of a couragious spirit, in the deepest calamities, inflicted by sinister fate

SEeing crosses cannot be evited, I'l
Expose my selfe to Fortune, as a Rock
Within the midst of a tempestuous Ocean:
So to gainstand the batt'ry of her spight,
That though jaile, sicknesse, poverty, exile
Assault me all, with each a grievous stroak
Of sev'rall misery, at the devotion
Of misadventure, ev'ry day, and night:
Yet with a mind, undanted all the while,
I will resist her blows, till they be broke
Jn the rebounding, and without commotion,
Till all her rage be spent, sustaine the fight:
So that she shall not b'able to subdue
One thought of mine, with all that she can doe;
For when sh'hath try'd her worst, I will not yeeld,
Nor let her thinke, that she hath gain'd the field.