Written In Juice Of Lemon Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCCD EEFGGH IJKAAK HLMDDN IIHOOH PQRAAR SSAKKA RRRTUR| Whilst what I write I do not see | A |
| I dare thus ev'n to you write poetry | A |
| Ah foolish Muse which dost so high aspire | B |
| And know'st her judgment well | C |
| How much it does thy power excel | C |
| Yet dar'st be read by thy just doom the fire | D |
| - | |
| Alas thou think'st thyself secure | E |
| Because thy form is innocent and pure | E |
| Like hypocrites which seem unspotted here | F |
| But when they sadly come to die | G |
| And the last fire their truth must try | G |
| Scrawled o'er like thee and blotted they appear | H |
| - | |
| Go then but reverently go | I |
| And since thou needs must sin confess it too | J |
| Confess 't and with humility clothe thy shame | K |
| For thou who else must burned be | A |
| An heretick if she pardon thee | A |
| Mayst like a martyr then enjoy the flame | K |
| - | |
| But if her wisdom grow severe | H |
| And suffer not her goodness to be there | L |
| If her large mercies cruelly it restrain | M |
| Be not discourag'd but require | D |
| A more gentle ordeal fire | D |
| And bid her by love's flames read it again | N |
| - | |
| Strange power of heat thou yet dost show | I |
| Like winter earth naked or cloth'd with snow | I |
| But as the quickening sun approaching near | H |
| The plants arise up by degrees | O |
| A sudden paint adorns the trees | O |
| And all kind Nature's characters appear | H |
| - | |
| So nothing yet in thee is seen | P |
| But when a genial heat warms thee within | Q |
| A new born wood of various lines there grows | R |
| Here buds an A and there a B | A |
| Here sprouts a V and there a T | A |
| And all the flourishing letters stand in rows | R |
| - | |
| Still silly paper thou wilt think | S |
| That all this might as well be writ with ink | S |
| Oh no there's sense in this and mystery | A |
| Thou now mayst change thy author's name | K |
| And to her hand lay noble claim | K |
| For as she reads she makes the words in thee | A |
| - | |
| Yet if thine own unworthiness | R |
| Will still that thou art mine not hers confess | R |
| Consume thy self with fire before her eyes | R |
| And so her grace or pity move | T |
| The gods though beasts they do not love | U |
| Yet like them when they 're burnt in sacrifice | R |
Abraham Cowley
(1)
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