The Complaint Of Lisa Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCABDCEFEDF FAFDACBECEDB BFDACABCEFDE EBCDAFEBCDAF FEDEABCACFBD DFDEABCAFEBC CDCEFABEBDFA ACFDBEACFDEB BABACECEFDFD DBFCEACBEADF FDEACBFEBADC CFDCFDBEABEA EFADAB

There is no woman living that draws breathA
So sad as I though all things sadden herB
There is not one upon life's weariest wayC
Who is weary as I am weary of all but deathA
Toward whom I look as looks the sunflowerB
All day with all his whole soul toward the sunD
While in the sun's sight I make moan all dayC
And all night on my sleepless maiden bedE
Weep and call out on death O Love and theeF
That thou or he would take me to the deadE
And know not what thing evil I have doneD
That life should lay such heavy hand on meF
-
Alas Love what is this thou wouldst with meF
What honour shalt thou have to quench my breathA
Or what shall my heart broken profit theeF
O Love O great god Love what have I doneD
That thou shouldst hunger so after my deathA
My heart is harmless as my life's first dayC
Seek out some false fair woman and plague herB
Till her tears even as my tears fill her bedE
I am the least flower in thy flowery wayC
But till my time be come that I be deadE
Let me live out my flower time in the sunD
Though my leaves shut before the sunflowerB
-
O Love Love Love the kingly sunflowerB
Shall he the sun hath looked on look on meF
That live down here in shade out of the sunD
Here living in the sorrow and shadow of deathA
Shall he that feeds his heart full of the dayC
Care to give mine eyes light or my lips breathA
Because she loves him shall my lord love herB
Who is as a worm in my lord's kingly wayC
I shall not see him or know him alive or deadE
But thou I know thee O Love and pray to theeF
That in brief while my brief life days be doneD
And the worm quickly make my marriage bedE
-
For underground there is no sleepless bedE
But here since I beheld my sunflowerB
These eyes have slept not seeing all night and dayC
His sunlike eyes and face fronting the sunD
Wherefore if anywhere be any deathA
I would fain find and fold him fast to meF
That I may sleep with the world's eldest deadE
With her that died seven centuries since and herB
That went last night down the night wandering wayC
For this is sleep indeed when labour is doneD
Without love without dreams and without breathA
And without thought O name unnamed of theeF
-
Ah but forgetting all things shall I theeF
Wilt thou not be as now about my bedE
There underground as here before the sunD
Shall not thy vision vex me alive and deadE
Thy moving vision without form or breathA
I read long since the bitter tale of herB
Who read the tale of Launcelot on a dayC
And died and had no quiet after deathA
But was moved ever along a weary wayC
Lost with her love in the underworld ah meF
O my king O my lordly sunflowerB
Would God to me too such a thing were doneD
-
But if such sweet and bitter things be doneD
Then flying from life I shall not fly from theeF
For in that living world without a sunD
Thy vision will lay hold upon me deadE
And meet and mock me and mar my peace in deathA
Yet if being wroth God had such pity on herB
Who was a sinner and foolish in her dayC
That even in hell they twain should breathe one breathA
Why should he not in some wise pity meF
So if I sleep not in my soft strait bedE
I may look up and see my sunflowerB
As he the sun in some divine strange wayC
-
O poor my heart well knowest thou in what wayC
This sore sweet evil unto us was doneD
For on a holy and a heavy dayC
I was arisen out of my still small bedE
To see the knights tilt and one said to meF
The king and seeing him somewhat stopped my breathA
And if the girl spake more I heard not herB
For only I saw what I shall see when deadE
A kingly flower of knights a sunflowerB
That shone against the sunlight like the sunD
And like a fire O heart consuming theeF
The fire of love that lights the pyre of deathA
-
Howbeit I shall not die an evil deathA
Who have loved in such a sad and sinless wayC
That this my love lord was no shame to theeF
So when mine eyes are shut against the sunD
O my soul's sun O the world's sunflowerB
Thou nor no man will quite despise me deadE
And dying I pray with all my low last breathA
That thy whole life may be as was that dayC
That feast day that made trothplight death and meF
Giving the world light of thy great deeds doneD
And that fair face brightening thy bridal bedE
That God be good as God hath been to herB
-
That all things goodly and glad remain with herB
All things that make glad life and goodly deathA
That as a bee sucks from a sunflowerB
Honey when summer draws delighted breathA
Her soul may drink of thy soul in like wayC
And love make life a fruitful marriage bedE
Where day may bring forth fruits of joy to dayC
And night to night till days and nights be deadE
And as she gives light of her love to theeF
Give thou to her the old glory of days long doneD
And either give some heat of light to meF
To warm me where I sleep without the sunD
-
O sunflower made drunken with the sunD
O knight whose lady's heart draws thine to herB
Great king glad lover I have a word to theeF
There is a weed lives out of the sun's wayC
Hid from the heat deep in the meadow's bedE
That swoons and whitens at the wind's least breathA
A flower star shaped that all a summer dayC
Will gaze her soul out on the sunflowerB
For very love till twilight finds her deadE
But the great sunflower heeds not her poor deathA
Knows not when all her loving life is doneD
And so much knows my lord the king of meF
-
Aye all day long he has no eye for meF
With golden eye following the golden sunD
From rose coloured to purple pillowed bedE
From birthplace to the flame lit place of deathA
From eastern end to western of his wayC
So mine eye follows thee my sunflowerB
So the white star flower turns and yearns to theeF
The sick weak weed not well alive or deadE
Trod underfoot if any pass by herB
Pale without colour of summer or summer breathA
In the shrunk shuddering petals that have doneD
No work but love and die before the dayC
-
But thou to day to morrow and every dayC
Be glad and great O love whose love slays meF
Thy fervent flower made fruitful from the sunD
Shall drop its golden seed in the world's wayC
That all men thereof nourished shall praise theeF
For grain and flower and fruit of works well doneD
Till thy shed seed O shining sunflowerB
Bring forth such growth of the world's garden bedE
As like the sun shall outlive age and deathA
And yet I would thine heart had heed of herB
Who loves thee alive but not till she be deadE
Come Love then quickly and take her utmost breathA
-
Song speak for me who am dumb as are the deadE
From my sad bed of tears I send forth theeF
To fly all day from sun's birth to sun's deathA
Down the sun's way after the flying sunD
For love of her that gave thee wings and breathA
Ere day be done to seek the sunflowerB

Algernon Charles Swinburne



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