Mortification Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCABC DECDEC FGCHGC IJCIKC LMCLMC MDCMDC| How soon doth man decay | A |
| When clothes are taken from a chest of sweets | B |
| To swaddle infants whose young breath | C |
| Scarce knows the way | A |
| Those clouts are little winding sheets | B |
| Which do consign and send them unto Death | C |
| - | |
| When boyes go first to bed | D |
| They step into their voluntarie graves | E |
| Sleep binds them fast onely their breath | C |
| Makes them not dead | D |
| Successive nights like rolling waves | E |
| Convey them quickly who are bound for Death | C |
| - | |
| When Youth is frank and free | F |
| And calls for musick while his veins do swell | G |
| All day exchanging mirth and breath | C |
| In companie | H |
| That musick summons to the knell | G |
| Which shall befriend him at the house of Death | C |
| - | |
| When man grows staid and wise | I |
| Getting a house and home where he may move | J |
| Within the circle of his breath | C |
| Schooling his eyes | I |
| That dumbe inclosure maketh love | K |
| Unto the coffin that attends his death | C |
| - | |
| When Age grows low and weak | L |
| Marking his grave and thawing ev'ry year | M |
| Till all do melt and drown his breath | C |
| When he would speak | L |
| A chair or litter shows the biere | M |
| Which shall convey him to the house of Death | C |
| - | |
| Man ere he is aware | M |
| Hath put together a solemnitie | D |
| And drest his hearse while he has breath | C |
| As yet to spare | M |
| Yet Lord instruct us so to die | D |
| That all these dyings may be LIFE in DEATH | C |
George Herbert
(1)
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