The Complaint Of Lisa Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCABDCEFEDF FAFDACBECEDB BFDACABCEFDE EBCDAFEBCDAF FEDEABCACFBD DFDEABCAFEBC CDCEFABEBDFA ACFDBEACFDEB BABACECEFDFD DBFCEACBEADF FDEACBFEBADC CFDCFDBEABEA EFADABThere is no woman living that draws breath | A |
So sad as I though all things sadden her | B |
There is not one upon life's weariest way | C |
Who is weary as I am weary of all but death | A |
Toward whom I look as looks the sunflower | B |
All day with all his whole soul toward the sun | D |
While in the sun's sight I make moan all day | C |
And all night on my sleepless maiden bed | E |
Weep and call out on death O Love and thee | F |
That thou or he would take me to the dead | E |
And know not what thing evil I have done | D |
That life should lay such heavy hand on me | F |
- | |
Alas Love what is this thou wouldst with me | F |
What honour shalt thou have to quench my breath | A |
Or what shall my heart broken profit thee | F |
O Love O great god Love what have I done | D |
That thou shouldst hunger so after my death | A |
My heart is harmless as my life's first day | C |
Seek out some false fair woman and plague her | B |
Till her tears even as my tears fill her bed | E |
I am the least flower in thy flowery way | C |
But till my time be come that I be dead | E |
Let me live out my flower time in the sun | D |
Though my leaves shut before the sunflower | B |
- | |
O Love Love Love the kingly sunflower | B |
Shall he the sun hath looked on look on me | F |
That live down here in shade out of the sun | D |
Here living in the sorrow and shadow of death | A |
Shall he that feeds his heart full of the day | C |
Care to give mine eyes light or my lips breath | A |
Because she loves him shall my lord love her | B |
Who is as a worm in my lord's kingly way | C |
I shall not see him or know him alive or dead | E |
But thou I know thee O Love and pray to thee | F |
That in brief while my brief life days be done | D |
And the worm quickly make my marriage bed | E |
- | |
For underground there is no sleepless bed | E |
But here since I beheld my sunflower | B |
These eyes have slept not seeing all night and day | C |
His sunlike eyes and face fronting the sun | D |
Wherefore if anywhere be any death | A |
I would fain find and fold him fast to me | F |
That I may sleep with the world's eldest dead | E |
With her that died seven centuries since and her | B |
That went last night down the night wandering way | C |
For this is sleep indeed when labour is done | D |
Without love without dreams and without breath | A |
And without thought O name unnamed of thee | F |
- | |
Ah but forgetting all things shall I thee | F |
Wilt thou not be as now about my bed | E |
There underground as here before the sun | D |
Shall not thy vision vex me alive and dead | E |
Thy moving vision without form or breath | A |
I read long since the bitter tale of her | B |
Who read the tale of Launcelot on a day | C |
And died and had no quiet after death | A |
But was moved ever along a weary way | C |
Lost with her love in the underworld ah me | F |
O my king O my lordly sunflower | B |
Would God to me too such a thing were done | D |
- | |
But if such sweet and bitter things be done | D |
Then flying from life I shall not fly from thee | F |
For in that living world without a sun | D |
Thy vision will lay hold upon me dead | E |
And meet and mock me and mar my peace in death | A |
Yet if being wroth God had such pity on her | B |
Who was a sinner and foolish in her day | C |
That even in hell they twain should breathe one breath | A |
Why should he not in some wise pity me | F |
So if I sleep not in my soft strait bed | E |
I may look up and see my sunflower | B |
As he the sun in some divine strange way | C |
- | |
O poor my heart well knowest thou in what way | C |
This sore sweet evil unto us was done | D |
For on a holy and a heavy day | C |
I was arisen out of my still small bed | E |
To see the knights tilt and one said to me | F |
The king and seeing him somewhat stopped my breath | A |
And if the girl spake more I heard not her | B |
For only I saw what I shall see when dead | E |
A kingly flower of knights a sunflower | B |
That shone against the sunlight like the sun | D |
And like a fire O heart consuming thee | F |
The fire of love that lights the pyre of death | A |
- | |
Howbeit I shall not die an evil death | A |
Who have loved in such a sad and sinless way | C |
That this my love lord was no shame to thee | F |
So when mine eyes are shut against the sun | D |
O my soul's sun O the world's sunflower | B |
Thou nor no man will quite despise me dead | E |
And dying I pray with all my low last breath | A |
That thy whole life may be as was that day | C |
That feast day that made trothplight death and me | F |
Giving the world light of thy great deeds done | D |
And that fair face brightening thy bridal bed | E |
That God be good as God hath been to her | B |
- | |
That all things goodly and glad remain with her | B |
All things that make glad life and goodly death | A |
That as a bee sucks from a sunflower | B |
Honey when summer draws delighted breath | A |
Her soul may drink of thy soul in like way | C |
And love make life a fruitful marriage bed | E |
Where day may bring forth fruits of joy to day | C |
And night to night till days and nights be dead | E |
And as she gives light of her love to thee | F |
Give thou to her the old glory of days long done | D |
And either give some heat of light to me | F |
To warm me where I sleep without the sun | D |
- | |
O sunflower made drunken with the sun | D |
O knight whose lady's heart draws thine to her | B |
Great king glad lover I have a word to thee | F |
There is a weed lives out of the sun's way | C |
Hid from the heat deep in the meadow's bed | E |
That swoons and whitens at the wind's least breath | A |
A flower star shaped that all a summer day | C |
Will gaze her soul out on the sunflower | B |
For very love till twilight finds her dead | E |
But the great sunflower heeds not her poor death | A |
Knows not when all her loving life is done | D |
And so much knows my lord the king of me | F |
- | |
Aye all day long he has no eye for me | F |
With golden eye following the golden sun | D |
From rose coloured to purple pillowed bed | E |
From birthplace to the flame lit place of death | A |
From eastern end to western of his way | C |
So mine eye follows thee my sunflower | B |
So the white star flower turns and yearns to thee | F |
The sick weak weed not well alive or dead | E |
Trod underfoot if any pass by her | B |
Pale without colour of summer or summer breath | A |
In the shrunk shuddering petals that have done | D |
No work but love and die before the day | C |
- | |
But thou to day to morrow and every day | C |
Be glad and great O love whose love slays me | F |
Thy fervent flower made fruitful from the sun | D |
Shall drop its golden seed in the world's way | C |
That all men thereof nourished shall praise thee | F |
For grain and flower and fruit of works well done | D |
Till thy shed seed O shining sunflower | B |
Bring forth such growth of the world's garden bed | E |
As like the sun shall outlive age and death | A |
And yet I would thine heart had heed of her | B |
Who loves thee alive but not till she be dead | E |
Come Love then quickly and take her utmost breath | A |
- | |
Song speak for me who am dumb as are the dead | E |
From my sad bed of tears I send forth thee | F |
To fly all day from sun's birth to sun's death | A |
Down the sun's way after the flying sun | D |
For love of her that gave thee wings and breath | A |
Ere day be done to seek the sunflower | B |
Algernon Charles Swinburne
(2)
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