Is it Possible
Is it Possible
Original Text
British Library Devonshire MS. 2711, fol. 14; cf. Collected Poems of Sir Thomas Wyatt, ed. Kenneth Muir and Patricia Thomson (Liverpool, 1969): 194-95.
1Is it possible
2That so high debate,
4Should end so soon and was begun so late?
5Is it possible?
6Is it possible
7So cruel intent,
8So hasty heat and so soon spent,
9From love to hate, and thence for to relent?
10Is it possible?
11Is it possible
12That any may find
13Within one heart so diverse mind,
15Is it possible?
16Is it possible
17To spy it in an eye
19The truth whereof can any try?
20Is it possible?
21It is possible
22For to turn so oft,
23To bring that lowest which was most aloft,
25It is possible.
29As men wed ladies by licence and leave.
30All is possible.
Notes
3] rate: quality, pace. Back to Line
14] as weather and wind: proverbial (Tilley W439). Back to Line
18] die: dice, with quibble on the verb "die." Back to Line
24] to fall highest: being highest, in falling. Back to Line
26] The punctuation and segmentation are editorial. Different interpretations may be obtained by pointing these lines differently. E.g., one might read
All is possible.Back to Line
[For] Whoso list believe
"Trust therefore first and after preve,"
As men [who] wed ladies by licence and leave,
All is possible.
27] Whoso list: whoever please to. Back to Line
28] preve: prove, find out if true. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1815
RPO poem Editors
F. D. Hoeniger; Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RP 1963: I.10; RPO 1994.
Rhyme