Summary

Were it not that dying would take him from his love, the angry speaker of this litany of life’s disappointments would die. Everywhere he sees the undeserving win public esteem — “And gilded honor shamefully misplaced” — while the virtuous and needy are neglected, or even worse, disgraced. However, the poet thinks that the youth would suffer by his demise. Therefore, he puts up with life’s disappointments and the public criticism of his life and art: “Tired with all these, from these would I be gone, / Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.”