The Request Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBACCDD EDDEFFGG HIJHKKLM NOOPIJQQ RCCRSSTU DVVDDDWE WXXETBDD| I'AVE often wish'd to love what shall I do | A |
| Me still the cruel boy does spare | B |
| And I a double task must bear | B |
| First to woo him and then a mistress too | A |
| Come at last and strike for shame | C |
| If thou art any thing besides a name | C |
| I'll think thee else no God to be | D |
| But poets rather Gods who first created thee | D |
| - | |
| I ask not one in whom all beauties grow | E |
| Let me but love whate'er she be | D |
| She cannot seem deform'd to me | D |
| And I would have her seem to others so | E |
| Desire takes wings and straight does fly | F |
| It stays not dully to inquire the Why | F |
| That happy thing a lover grown | G |
| I shall not see with others' eyes scarce with mine own | G |
| - | |
| If she be coy and scorn my noble fire | H |
| If her chill heart I cannot move | I |
| Why I'll enjoy the very love | J |
| And make a mistress of my own desire | H |
| Flames their most vigorous heat do hold | K |
| And purest light if compass'd round with cold | K |
| So when sharp winter means most harm | L |
| The springing plants are by the snow itself kept warm | M |
| - | |
| But do not touch my heart and so be gone | N |
| Strike deep thy burning arrows in | O |
| Lukewarmness I account a sin | O |
| As great in love as in religion | P |
| Come arm'd with flames for I would prove | I |
| All the extremities of mighty Love | J |
| Th' excess of heat is but a fable | Q |
| We know the torrid zone is now found habitable | Q |
| - | |
| Among the woods and forests thou art found | R |
| There boars and lions thou dost tame | C |
| Is not my heart a nobler game | C |
| Let Venus men and beasts Diana wound | R |
| Thou dost the birds thy subjects make | S |
| Thy nimble feathers do their wings o'ertake | S |
| Thou all the spring their songs dost hear | T |
| Make me love too I'll sing to' thee all the year | U |
| - | |
| What service can mute fishes do to thee | D |
| Yet against them thy dart prevails | V |
| Piercing the armour of their scales | V |
| And still thy sea born mother lives i'th' sea | D |
| Dost thou deny only to me | D |
| The no great privilege of captivity | D |
| I beg or challenge here thy bow | W |
| Either thy pity to me or else thine anger show | E |
| - | |
| Come or I 'll teach the world to scorn that bow | W |
| I'll teach them thousand wholesome arts | X |
| Both to resist and cure thy darts | X |
| More than thy skilful Ovid e'er did know | E |
| Musick of sighs thou shalt not hear | T |
| Nor drink one wretched lover's tasteful tear | B |
| Nay unless soon thou woundest me | D |
| My verses shall not only wound but murder thee | D |
Abraham Cowley
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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