What cruel star into this world me brought?
What gloomy day did dawn to give me light?
What unkind hand to nurse me, orphan, sought,
And would not leave me in eternal night?
What thing so dear as I hath essence bought?
The elements, dry, humid, heavy, light,
The smallest living things by nature wrought,
Be freed of woe, if they have small delight.
Ah! only I, abandon'd to despair,
Nail'd to my torments, in pale Horror's shade,
Like wand'ring clouds see all my comforts fled,
And evil on evil with hours my life impair:
The heaven and fortune which were wont to turn,
Fixt in one mansion stay to cause me mourn.