Complaint Of A Dying Lover Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCBBDDEFGGHHBBIF BBBBJDKKLFBBBFIFMMBF BBNOBBDDPPQQBBRRSTAF JJIFBBBBUUVHWXBBYYZZ A2B2| IN winter's just return when Boreas gan his reign | A |
| And every tree unclothed fast as nature taught them plain | A |
| In misty morning dark as sheep are then in hold | B |
| I hied me fast it sat me on my sheep for to unfold | B |
| And as it is a thing that lovers have by fits | C |
| Under a palm I heard one cry as he had lost his wits | C |
| Whose voice did ring so shrill in uttering of his plaint | B |
| That I amazed was to hear how love could him attaint | B |
| ' Ah wretched man ' quoth he 'come death and rid this woe | D |
| A just reward a happy end if it may chance thee so | D |
| Thy pleasures past have wrought thy woe without redress | E |
| If thou hadst never felt no joy thy smart had been the less ' | F |
| And rechless of his life he gan both sigh and groan | G |
| A rueful thing me thought it was to hear him make such moan | G |
| 'Thou cursed pen ' said he 'woe worth the bird thee bare | H |
| The man the knife and all that made thee woe be to their share | H |
| Woe worth the time and place where I so could indite | B |
| And woe be it yet once again the pen that so can write | B |
| Unhappy hand it had been happy time for me | I |
| If when to write thou learned first unjointed hadst thou be ' | F |
| Thus cursed he himself and every other wight | B |
| Save her alone whom love him bound to serve both day and night | B |
| Which when I heard and saw how he himself fordid | B |
| Against the ground with bloody strokes himself e'en there to rid | B |
| Had been my heart of flint it must have melted tho' | J |
| For in my life I never saw a man so full of woe | D |
| With tears for his redress I rashly to him ran | K |
| And in my arms I caught him fast and thus I spake him than | K |
| ' What woful wight art thou that in such heavy case | L |
| Torments thyself with such despite here in this desart place ' | F |
| Wherewith as all aghast fulfill'd with ire and dread | B |
| He cast on me a staring look with colour pale and dead | B |
| ' Nay what art thou ' quoth he 'that in this heavy plight | B |
| Dost find me here most woful wretch that life hath in despite ' | F |
| ' I am ' quoth I 'but poor and simple in degree | I |
| A shepherd's charge I have in hand unworthy though I be ' | F |
| With that he gave a sigh as though the sky should fall | M |
| And loud alas he shrieked oft and 'Shepherd ' gan he call | M |
| 'Come hie thee fast at once and print it in thy heart | B |
| So thou shalt know and I shall tell thee guiltless how I smart ' | F |
| His back against the tree sore feebled all with faint | B |
| With weary sprite he stretcht him up and thus he told his plaint | B |
| ' Once in my heart ' quoth he 'it chanced me to love | N |
| Such one in whom hath Nature wrought her cunning for to prove | O |
| And sure I cannot say but many years were spent | B |
| With such good will so recompens'd as both we were content | B |
| Whereto then I me bound and she likewise also | D |
| The sun should run his course awry ere we this faith forego | D |
| Who joyed then but I who had this world s bliss | P |
| Who might compare a life to mine that never thought on this | P |
| But dwelling in this truth amid my greatest joy | Q |
| Is me befallen a greater loss than Priam had of Troy | Q |
| She is reversed clean and beareth me in hand | B |
| That my deserts have given cause to break this faithful band | B |
| And for my just excuse availeth no defence | R |
| Now knowest thou all I can no more but Shepherd hie thee hence | R |
| And give him leave to die that may no longer live | S |
| Whose record lo I claim to have my death I do forgive | T |
| And eke when I am gone be bold to speak it plain | A |
| Thou hast seen die the truest man that ever love did pain ' | F |
| Wherewith he turned him round and gasping oft for breath | J |
| Into his arms a tree he raught and said 'Welcome my death | J |
| Welcome a thousand fold now dearer unto me | I |
| Than should without her love to live an emperor to be ' | F |
| Thus in this woful state he yielded up the ghost | B |
| And little knoweth his lady what a lover she hath lost | B |
| Whose death when I beheld no marvel was it right | B |
| For pity though my heart did bleed to see so piteous sight | B |
| My blood from heat to cold oft changed wonders sore | U |
| A thousand troubles there I found I never knew before | U |
| 'Tween dread and dolour so my sprites were brought in fear | V |
| That long it was ere I could call to mind what I did there | H |
| But as each thing hath end so had these pains of mine | W |
| The furies past and I my wits restor'd by length of time | X |
| Then as I could devise to seek I thought it best | B |
| Where I might find some worthy place for such a corse to rest | B |
| And in my mind it came from thence not far away | Y |
| Where Cressid's love king Priam's son the worthy Troilus lay | Y |
| By him I made his tomb in token he was true | Z |
| And as to him belonged well I covered it with blue | Z |
| Whose soul by angels' power departed not so soon | A2 |
| But to the heavens lo it fled for to receive his doom | B2 |
Henry Howard
(1)
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