Sappho To Phaon (ovid Heroid Xv) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEEFFGHIIJJBCKK JJLMLLNNOOJJJJPPAAJJ NNAAKKAAQQBCRRSTAAAA UUNNAAAAJJVVJJNNAAJJ EEJJAAJJBCWXJJVVFFYY JJQQJJZA2JJAAAAZZB2B 2A2C2OOAAAAEEAAD2E2N NJJJJLLNNAAUUJJKKF2G 2JJH2H2D2E2I2I2JJCCE 2E2J2J2UUAUE2E2H2H2E 2E2 O

Say lovely youth that dost my heart commandA
Can Phaon's eyes forget his Sappho's handA
Must then her name the wretched writer proveB
To thy remembrance lost as to thy loveC
Ask not the cause that I new numbers chooseD
The Lute neglected and the Lyric museD
Love taught my tears in adder notes to flowE
And tun'd my heart to Elegies of woeE
I burn I burn as when thro' ripen'd cornF
By driving winds the spreading flames are borneF
Phaon to Aetna's scorching fields retiresG
While I consume with more than Aetna's firesH
No more my soul a charm in music findsI
Music has charms alone for peaceful mindsI
Soft scenes of solitude no more can pleaseJ
Love enters there and I'm my own diseaseJ
No more the Lesbian dames my passion moveB
Once the dear objects of my guilty loveC
All other loves are lost in only thineK
Ah youth ungrateful to a flame like mineK
Whom would not all those blooming charms surprizeJ
Those heav'nly looks and dear deluding eyesJ
The harp and bow would you like Phoebus bearL
A brighter Phoebus Phaon might appearM
Would you with ivy wreath your flowing hairL
Not Bacchus' self with Phaon could compareL
Yet Phoebus lov'd and Bacchus felt the flameN
One Daphne warm'd and one the Cretan dameN
Nymphs that in verse no more could rival meO
That ev'n those Gods contend in charms with theeO
The Muses teach me all their softest laysJ
And the wide world resounds with Sappho's praiseJ
Tho' great Alcaeus more sublimely singsJ
And strikes with bolder rage the sounding stringsJ
No less renown attends the moving lyreP
Which Venus tunes and all her loves inspireP
To me what nature has in charms deny'dA
Is well by wit's more lasting flames supply'dA
Tho' short my stature yet my name extendsJ
To heav'n itself and earth's remotest endsJ
Brown as I am an Ethiopian dameN
Inspir'd young Perseus with a gen'rous flameN
Turtles and doves of diff'ring hues uniteA
And glossy jet is pair'd with shining whiteA
If to no charms thou wilt thy heart resignK
But such as merit such as equal thineK
By none alas by none thou canst be mov'dA
Phaon alone by Phaon must be lov'dA
Yet once thy Sappho could thy cares employQ
Once in her arms you center'd all your joyQ
No time the dear remembrance can removeB
For oh how vast a memory has loveC
My music then you could for ever hearR
And all my words were music to your earR
You stopp'd with kisses my enchanting tongueS
And found my kisses sweeter than my songT
In all I pleas'd but most in what was bestA
And the last joy was dearer than the restA
Then with each word each glance each motion fir'dA
You still enjoy'd and yet you still desir'dA
'Till all dissolving in the trance we layU
And in tumultuous raptures died awayU
The fair Sicilians now thy soul inflameN
Why was I born ye Gods a Lesbian dameN
But ah beware Sicilian nymphs nor boastA
That wand'ring heart which I so lately lostA
Nor be with all those tempting words abus'dA
Those tempting words were all to Sappho us'dA
And you that rule Sicilia's happy plainsJ
Have pity Venus on your Poet's painsJ
Shall fortune still in one sad tenor runV
And still increase the woes so soon begunV
Inur'd to sorrow from my tender yearsJ
My parent's ashes drank my early tearsJ
My brother next neglecting wealth and fameN
Ignobly burn'd in a destructive flameN
An infant daughter late my griefs increas'dA
And all a mother's cares distract my breastA
Alas what more could fate itself imposeJ
But thee the last and greatest of my woesJ
No more my robes in waving purple flowE
Nor on my hand the sparkling di'monds glowE
No more my locks in ringlets curl'd diffuseJ
The costly sweetness of Arabian dewsJ
Nor braids of gold the varied tresses bindA
That fly disorder'd with the wanton windA
For whom should Sappho use such arts as theseJ
He's gone whom only she desir'd to pleaseJ
Cupid's light darts my tender bosom moveB
Still is there cause for Sappho still to loveC
So from my birth the Sisters fix'd my doomW
And gave to Venus all my life to comeX
Or while my Muse in melting notes complainsJ
My yielding heart keeps measure to my strainsJ
By charms like thine which all my soul have wonV
Who might not ah who would not be undoneV
For those Aurora Cephalus might scornF
And with fresh blushes paint the conscious mornF
For those might Cynthia lengthen Phaon's sleepY
And bit Endymion nightly tend his sheepY
Venus for those had rapt thee to the skiesJ
But Mars on thee might look with Venus' eyesJ
O scarce a youth yet scarce a tender boyQ
O useful time for lovers to employQ
Pride of thy age and glory of thy raceJ
Come to these arms and melt in this embraceJ
The vows you never will return receiveZ
And take at least the love you will not giveA2
See while I write my words are lost in tearsJ
The less my sense the more my love appearsJ
Sure 'twas not much to bid one kind adieuA
At least to feign was never hard to youA
Farewell my Lesbian love you might have saidA
Or coldly thus Farewell oh Lesbian maidA
No tear did you no parting kiss receiveZ
Nor knew I then how much I was to grieveZ
No lover's gift your Sappho could conferB2
And wrongs and woes were all you left with herB2
No charge I gave you and no charge could giveA2
But this Be mindful of our loves and liveC2
Now by the Nine those pow'rs ador'd by meO
And Love the God that ever waits on theeO
When first I heard from whom I hardly knewA
That you were fled and all my joys with youA
Like some sad statue speechless pale I stoodA
Grief chill'd my breast and stopp'd my freezing bloodA
No sigh to rise no tear had powr to flowE
Fix'd in a stupid lethargy of woeE
But when its way th' impetuous passion foundA
I rend my tresses and my breast I woundA
I rave then weep I curse and then complainD2
Now swell to rage no melt in tears againE2
Not fiercer pangs distract the mournful dameN
Whose first born infant feeds the fun'ral flameN
My scornful brother with a smile appearsJ
Insults my woes and triumphs in my tearsJ
His hated image ever haunts my eyesJ
And why this grief thy daughter lives he criesJ
Stung with my Love and furious with despairL
All torn my garments and my bosom bareL
My woes thy crimes I to the world proclaimN
Such inconsistent things are love and shameN
'Tis thou art all my care and my delightA
My daily longing and my dream by nightA
Oh night more pleasing than the brightest dayU
When fancy gives what absence takes awayU
And dress'd in all its visionary charmsJ
Restores my fair deserter to my armsJ
Then round your neck in wanton wreaths I twineK
Then you methinks as fondly circle mineK
A thousand tender words I hear and speakF2
A thousand melting kisses give and takeG2
Then fiercer joys I blush to mention theseJ
Yet while I blush confess how much they pleaseJ
But when with day the sweet delusions flyH2
And all things wake to life and joy but IH2
As if once more forsaken I complainD2
And close my eyes to dream of you againE2
Then frantic rise and like some Fury roveI2
Thro' lonely plains and thro' the silent groveI2
As if the silent grove and lonely plainsJ
That knew my pleasures could relieve my painsJ
I view the Grotto once the scene of loveC
The rocks around the hanging roofs aboveC
That charm'd me more with native moss o'ergrownE2
Than Phyrgian marble or the Parian stoneE2
I find the shades that veil'd our joys beforeJ2
But Phaon gone those shades delight no moreJ2
Here the press'd herbs with bending tops betrayU
Where oft entwin'd in am'rous folds we layU
I kiss that earth which once was press'd by youA
And all with tears the with'ring herbs bedewU
For thee the fading trees appear to mournE2
And birds defer their songs till thy returnE2
Night shades the grove s and all in silence lieH2
All but the mournful Philomel and IH2
With mournful Philomel I join my strainE2
Of Tereus she of Phaeon I complainE2
-
A spring there is whose siO

Alexander Pope



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