Twenty Days

Twenty days are barely gone,
I was merry all the day.
Folly was my butt of scorn.
Now the fool myself I play.

Wit and learning ruled my head,
Logic and economy.
All the books I ever read
Taught me only vanity.

Most of all it moved my mirth
Womankind the world should rule.
Man, the lord of all the Earth!
He, forsooth, a woman's tool!

Cherry lip and glancing eye!
What were rosy cheeks to me?
Beauty's truth was but a lie--
Witness tomes of history!

Twenty days had barely run.
Twenty years they well might be.
All my wisdom was undone,
Reason bade good--night to me.

Her hair was of the red red gold,
Her blue eyes looked me through and through.
She was twenty--three years old,
I was twenty years and two.

Fortune, fame, I freely give,
Honour's self, if so she please,
Sweetly in her smile to live
Other twenty days like these.