Hero And Leander. The Fourth Sestiad Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCDEEFFGHIIGGJKLM NNOOPPQQRRSTSCUOOVVW WXXGYZZA2A2B2C2OOD2E 2TSF2F2F2F2G2G2STSSH 2I2F2F2J2J2OOF2F2K2K 2STRL2M2ESSUUF2F2F2F 2OON2N2GGO2O2F2F2P2P 2RRQ2R2UDF2F2S2S2TST 2T2DDCUF2F2SSF2F2Q2R 2UCF2F2F2F2YRF2F2EU2 V2V2SSV2V2V2V2F2F2F2 F2GW2SSX2X2V2V2F2F2P 2P2V2V2OOGGF2F2V2V2V 2V2V2V2TNow from Leander's place she rose and found | A |
Her hair and rent robe scatter'd on the ground | A |
Which taking up she every piece did lay | B |
Upon an altar where in youth of day | B |
She us'd t' exhibit private sacrifice | C |
Those would she offer to the deities | D |
Of her fair goddess and her powerful son | E |
As relics of her late felt passion | E |
And in that holy sort she vow'd to end them | F |
In hope her violent fancies that did rend them | F |
Would as quite fade in her love's holy fire | G |
As they should in the flames she meant t' inspire | H |
Then put she on all her religious weeds | I |
That decked her in her secret sacred deeds | I |
A crown of icicles that sun nor fire | G |
Could ever melt and figur'd chaste desire | G |
A golden star shined in her naked breast | J |
In honour of the queen light of the east | K |
In her right hand she held a silver wand | L |
On whose bright top Peristera did stand | M |
Who was a nymph but now transformed a dove | N |
And in her life was dear in Venus' love | N |
And for her sake she ever since that time | O |
Choosed doves to draw her coach through heaven's blue clime | O |
Her plenteous hair in curled billows swims | P |
On her bright shoulder her harmonious limbs | P |
Sustained no more but a most subtile veil | Q |
That hung on them as it durst not assail | Q |
Their different concord for the weakest air | R |
Could raise it swelling from her beauties fair | R |
Nor did it cover but adumbrate only | S |
Her most heart piercing parts that a blest eye | T |
Might see as it did shadow fearfully | S |
All that all love deserving paradise | C |
It was as blue as the most freezing skies | U |
Near the sea's hue for thence her goddess came | O |
On it a scarf she wore of wondrous frame | O |
In midst whereof she wrought a virgin's face | V |
From whose each cheek a fiery blush did chase | V |
Two crimson flames that did two ways extend | W |
Spreading the ample scarf to either end | W |
Which figur'd the division of her mind | X |
Whiles yet she rested bashfully inclin'd | X |
And stood not resolute to wed Leander | G |
This serv'd her white neck for a purple sphere | Y |
And cast itself at full breadth down her back | Z |
There since the first breath that begun the wrack | Z |
Of her free quiet from Leander's lips | A2 |
She wrought a sea in one flame full of ships | A2 |
But that one ship where all her wealth did pass | B2 |
Like simple merchants' goods Leander was | C2 |
For in that sea she naked figured him | O |
Her diving needle taught him how to swim | O |
And to each thread did such resemblance give | D2 |
For joy to be so like him it did live | E2 |
Things senseless live by art and rational die | T |
By rude contempt of art and industry | S |
Scarce could she work but in her strength of thought | F2 |
She fear'd she prick'd Leander as she wrought | F2 |
And oft would shriek so that her guardian frighted | F2 |
Would startling haste as with some mischief cited | F2 |
They double life that dead things' griefs sustain | G2 |
They kill that feel not their friends' living pain | G2 |
Sometimes she fear'd he sought her infamy | S |
And then as she was working of his eye | T |
She thought to prick it out to quench her ill | S |
But as she prick'd it grew more perfect still | S |
Trifling attempts no serious acts advance | H2 |
The fire of love is blown by dalliance | I2 |
In working his fair neck she did so grace it | F2 |
She still was working her own arms t' embrace it | F2 |
That and his shoulders and his hands were seen | J2 |
Above the stream and with a pure sea green | J2 |
She did so quaintly shadow every limb | O |
All might be seen beneath the waves to swim | O |
In this conceited scarf she wrought beside | F2 |
A moon in change and shooting stars did glide | F2 |
In number after her with bloody beams | K2 |
Which figur'd her affects in their extremes | K2 |
Pursuing nature in her Cynthian body | S |
And did her thoughts running on change imply | T |
For maids take more delight when they prepare | R |
And think of wives' states than when wives they are | L2 |
Beneath all these she wrought a fisherman | M2 |
Drawing his nets from forth the ocean | E |
Who drew so hard ye might discover well | S |
The toughen'd sinews in his neck did swell | S |
His inward strains drave out his blood shot eyes | U |
And springs of sweat did in his forehead rise | U |
Yet was of naught but of a serpent sped | F2 |
That in his bosom flew and stung him dead | F2 |
And this by Fate into her mind was sent | F2 |
Not wrought by mere instinct of her intent | F2 |
At the scarf's other end her hand did frame | O |
Near the fork'd point of the divided flame | O |
A country virgin keeping of a vine | N2 |
Who did of hollow bulrushes combine | N2 |
Snares for the stubble loving grasshopper | G |
And by her lay her scrip that nourish'd her | G |
Within a myrtle shade she sate and sung | O2 |
And tufts of waving reeds above her sprung | O2 |
Where lurked two foxes that while she applied | F2 |
Her trifling snares their thieveries did divide | F2 |
One to the vine another to her scrip | P2 |
That she did negligently overslip | P2 |
By which her fruitful vine and wholesome fare | R |
She suffered spoiled to make a childish snare | R |
These ominous fancies did her soul express | Q2 |
And every finger made a prophetess | R2 |
To show what death was hid in love's disguise | U |
And make her judgment conquer Destinies | D |
O what sweet forms fair ladies' souls do shroud | F2 |
Were they made seen and forced through their blood | F2 |
If through their beauties like rich work through lawn | S2 |
They would set forth their minds with virtues drawn | S2 |
In letting graces from their fingers fly | T |
To still their eyas thoughts with industry | S |
That their plied wits in numbered silks might sing | T2 |
Passion's huge conquest and their needles leading | T2 |
Affection prisoner through their own built cities | D |
Pinioned with stones and Arachnean ditties | D |
Proceed we now with Hero's sacrifice | C |
She odours burned and from their smoke did rise | U |
Unsavoury fumes that air with plagues inspired | F2 |
And then the consecrated sticks she fired | F2 |
On whose pale flames an angry spirit flew | S |
And beat it down still as it upward grew | S |
The virgin tapers that on th' altar stood | F2 |
When she inflam'd them burned as red as blood | F2 |
All sad ostents of that too near success | Q2 |
That made such moving beauties motionless | R2 |
Then Hero wept but her affrighted eyes | U |
She quickly wrested from the sacrifice | C |
Shut them and inwards for Leander looked | F2 |
Search'd her soft bosom and from thence she plucked | F2 |
His lovely picture which when she had viewed | F2 |
Her beauties were with all love's joys renewed | F2 |
The odours sweeten'd and the fires burned clear | Y |
Leander's form left no ill object there | R |
Such was his beauty that the force of light | F2 |
Whose knowledge teacheth wonders infinite | F2 |
The strength of number and proportion | E |
Nature had placed in it to make it known | U2 |
Art was her daughter and what human wits | V2 |
For study lost entombed in drossy spirits | V2 |
After this accident which for her glory | S |
Hero could not but make a history | S |
Th' inhabitants of Sestos and Abydos | V2 |
Did every year with feasts propitious | V2 |
To fair Leander's picture sacrifice | V2 |
And they were persons of especial price | V2 |
That were allowed it as an ornament | F2 |
T' enrich their houses for the continent | F2 |
Of the strange virtues all approved it held | F2 |
For even the very look of it repelled | F2 |
All blastings witchcrafts and the strifes of nature | G |
In those diseases that no herbs could cure | W2 |
The wolfy sting of avarice it would pull | S |
And make the rankest miser bountiful | S |
It kill'd the fear of thunder and of death | X2 |
The discords that conceit engendereth | X2 |
'Twixt man and wife it for the time would cease | V2 |
The flames of love it quench'd and would increase | V2 |
Held in a prince's hand it would put out | F2 |
The dreadful'st comet it would ease all doubt | F2 |
Of threaten'd mischiefs it would bring asleep | P2 |
Such as were mad it would enforce to weep | P2 |
Most barbarous eyes and many more effects | V2 |
This picture wrought and sprung Leandrian sects | V2 |
Of which was Hero first for he whose form | O |
Held in her hand clear'd such a fatal storm | O |
From hell she thought his person would defend her | G |
Which night and Hellespont would quickly send her | G |
With this confirm'd she vow'd to banish quite | F2 |
All thought of any check to her delight | F2 |
And in contempt of silly bashfulness | V2 |
She would the faith of her desires profess | V2 |
Where her religion should be policy | V2 |
To follow love with zeal her piety | V2 |
Her chamber her cathedral church should be | V2 |
And her Leander her chief deity | V2 |
For i | T |
George Chapman
(1)
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