The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne,assay - attempt; sharp - difficult; slit so yerne - slides farther away; iwis - I know; wot - know
Th'assay so hard, so sharp the conquerynge,
The dredful joye alwey that slit so yerne,
Al this mene I by Love, that my felynge
Astonyeth with his wonderful workynge
So sore, iwis, that whan I on hym thynke,
Nat wot I wel wher that I flete or synke.
The poem begins with a long rhetorical flourish, full of paradox and contradiction.
He starts by paraphrasing ars longa, vita brevis, but is here talking about love and its paradoxes and contradictions. Derek Pearsall gives the first three lines great significance: "It is a marvellously artful rhetorical opening that seems to announce a new era in English poetry, but that quickly dissolves, Chaucerian-style, into homely bewilderment." I'll keep that in mind, and make sure that if I ever edit an anthology, I don't select it as the opening work.
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