XVI.We never joy enjoy to that full pointRegret doth wish joy had enjoyèd been,Nor have the strength regret to disappointRecalling not past joy’s thought, but its mien.Yet joy was joy when it enjoyèd wasAnd after-enjoyed when as joy recalled,It must have been joy ere its joy did passAnd, recalled, joy still, since its being-past galled.Alas! All this is useless, for joy’s inEnjoying, not in thinking of enjoying.Its mere thought-mirroring gainst itself doth sin,By mere reflecting solid life destroying,Yet the more thought we take to thought to proveIt must not think, doth further from joy move.
We never joy enjoy to that full pointRegret doth wish joy had enjoyèd been,Nor have the strength regret to disappointRecalling not past joy’s thought, but its mien.Yet joy was joy when it enjoyèd wasAnd after-enjoyed when as joy recalled,It must have been joy ere its joy did passAnd, recalled, joy still, since its being-past galled.Alas! All this is useless, for joy’s inEnjoying, not in thinking of enjoying.Its mere thought-mirroring gainst itself doth sin,By mere reflecting solid life destroying,Yet the more thought we take to thought to proveIt must not think, doth further from joy move.