Hot Sun, Cool Fire

Hot Sun, Cool Fire

By George Peele 1556–1596 George Peele
Hot sun, cool fire, tempered with sweet air,
Black shade, fair nurse, shadow my white hair.
Shine, sun; burn, fire; breathe, air, and ease me;
Black shade, fair nurse, shroud me and please me.
Shadow, my sweet nurse, keep me from burning;
Make not my glad cause cause of mourning.
    Let not my beauty’s fire
    Inflame unstaid desire,
    Nor pierce any bright eye
    That wandereth lightly.

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Poet George Peele 1556–1596

POET’S REGION England

SCHOOL / PERIOD Renaissance

Subjects Living, Health & Illness, Sorrow & Grieving, Relationships, Men & Women, Activities, Jobs & Working

Poetic Terms Rhymed Stanza

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George Peele is more difficult to place in the Elizabethan literary landscape than many of his immediate contemporaries. Each of his plays is different from the others, so he is not readily identifiable as a writer primarily of comedies or tragedies or histories; he also practiced hybrid dramatic forms, known variously and vaguely as "entertainments" or "pageants" or "shows." His few surviving non-dramatic works are in a variety . . .

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SUBJECT Living, Health & Illness, Sorrow & Grieving, Relationships, Men & Women, Activities, Jobs & Working

POET’S REGION England

SCHOOL / PERIOD Renaissance

Poetic Terms Rhymed Stanza

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Originally appeared in Poetry magazine.

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