Paradox. That Fruition Destroyes Love Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEEFFGHHHEEEEEE EEIIJEEEIIKLEEEEHHHH MMNNEEEEOOIIEEHHHHPQ RRSSHHIEHHHHIIKLHHHH EEEETTUUMMEEHHVVEEHH EEEEEEHHTTIILove is our Reasons Paradox which still | A |
Against the judgment doth maintain the Will | A |
And governs by such arbitrary laws | B |
It onely makes the Act our Likings cause | C |
We have no brave revenge but to forgo | D |
Our full desires and starve the Tyrant so | D |
They whom the rising blood tempts not to taste | E |
Preserve a stock of Love can never waste | E |
When easie people who their wish enjoy | F |
Like Prodigalls at once their wealth destroy | F |
Adam till now had stayd in Paradise | G |
Had his desires been bounded by his eyes | H |
When he did more then look that made th' offence | H |
And forfeited his state of innocence | H |
Fruition therefore is the bane t'undoe | E |
Both our affection and the subject too | E |
'Tis Love into worse language to translate | E |
And make it into Lust degenerate | E |
'Tis to De throne and thrust it from the heart | E |
To seat it grossely in the sensual part | E |
Seek for the Starre that's shot upon the ground | E |
And nought but a dimme gelly there is found | E |
Thus foul and dark our female starres appear | I |
If fall'n or loosned once from Vertues Sphear | I |
Glow worms shine onely look't on and let ly | J |
But handled crawl into deformity | E |
So beauty is no longer fair and bright | E |
Then whil'st unstained by the appetite | E |
And then it withers like a blasted flowre | I |
Some poys'nous worm or spider hath crept ore | I |
Pigmaleon's dotage on the carved stone | K |
Shews Amorists their strong illusion | L |
Whil'st he to gaze and court it was content | E |
He serv'd as Priest at beauties Monument | E |
But when by looser fires t'embraces led | E |
It prov'd a cold hard Statue in his bed | E |
Irregular affects like mad mens dreams | H |
Presented by false lights and broken beams | H |
So long content us as no neer address | H |
Shews the weak sense our painted happiness | H |
But when those pleasing shaddowes us forsake | M |
Or of the substance we a trial make | M |
Like him deluded by the fancies mock | N |
We ship wrack 'gainst an Alabaster rock | N |
What though thy Mistress far from Marble be | E |
Her softness will transform and harden thee | E |
Lust is a Snake and Guilt the Gorgons head | E |
Which Conscience turns to Stone Joyes to Lead | E |
Turtles themselves will blush if put to name | O |
The Act whereby they quench their am'rous flame | O |
Who then that's wise or vertuous would not feare | I |
To catch at pleasures which forbidden were | I |
When those which we count lawful cannot be | E |
Requir'd without some loss of modestie | E |
Ev'n in the Marriage Bed where soft delights | H |
Are customary and authoriz'd Rites | H |
What are those tributes to the wanton fense | H |
But toleration of Incontinence | H |
For properly you cannot call that Love | P |
Which does not from the Soul but Humour move | Q |
Thus they who worship't Pan or Isis Shrine | R |
By the fair Front judg'd all within Divine | R |
Though entring found 'twas but a Goat or Cow | S |
To which before their ignorance did bow | S |
Such Temples and such Goddesses are these | H |
Which foolish Lovers and admirers please | H |
Who if they chance within the Shrine to prie | I |
Find that a beast they thought a Deity | E |
Nor makes it onely our opinion less | H |
Of what we lik't before and now possess | H |
But robbs the Fuel and corrupts the Spice | H |
Which sweetens and inflames Loves sacrifice | H |
After Fruition once what is Desire | I |
But ashes kept warm by a dying fire | I |
This is if any the Philosophers Stone | K |
Which still miscarries at Projection | L |
For when the Heat ad Octo intermits | H |
It poorly takes us like Third Ague fits | H |
Or must on Embers as dull Druggs infuse | H |
Which we for Med'cine not for Pleasure use | H |
Since Lovers joyes then leave so sick a taste | E |
And soon as relish'd by the Sense are past | E |
They are but Riddles sure lost if possest | E |
And therefore onely in Reversion best | E |
For bate them Expectation and Delay | T |
You take the most delightful Scenes away | T |
These two such rule within the fancie keep | U |
As banquets apprehended in our sleep | U |
After which pleasing trance next morn we wake | M |
Empty and angry at the nights mistake | M |
Give me long Dreams and Visions of content | E |
Rather then pleasures in a minute spent | E |
And since I know before the shedding Rose | H |
In that same instant doth her sweetness lose | H |
Upon the Virgin stock still let her dwell | V |
For me to feast my longings with her smell | V |
Those are but counterfeits of joy at best | E |
Which languish soon as brought unto the test | E |
Nor can I hold it worth his pains who tries | H |
To Inne that Harvest which by reaping dies | H |
Resolve me now what spirit hath delight | E |
If by full feed you kill the appetite | E |
That stomack healthy'st is that nere was cloy'd | E |
Why not that Love the best then nere enjoy'd | E |
Since nat'rally the blood when tam'd or sated | E |
Will cool so fast it leaves the object hated | E |
Pleasures like wonders quickly lose their price | H |
When Reason or Experience makes us wise | H |
To close my argument then I dare say | T |
And without Paradox as well we may | T |
Enjoy our Love and yet preserve Desire | I |
As warm our hands by putting out the fire | I |
Henry King
(1)
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