On Change of Weathers read by Bill Charlton

On Change of Weathers

And were it for thy profit, to obtain

All sunshine? No vicissitude of rain?

Think'st though that thy laborious plough requires

Not winter frosts as well as summer fires?

There must be both: sometimes these hearts of ours

Must have the sweet, the seasonable showers

Of tears; sometimes the frost of chill despair

Makes our desired sunshine seem more fair;

Weathers that most oppose the flesh and blood

Are such as help to make our harvest good.

We may not choose, great God; it is thy task;

We know not what to have, nor how to ask.

.

Francis Quarles (1592-1644)