The Exequy Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCCDDEEFFGGHHIJKK LLMMNNOPQQRRSTUJVW XXYYZZA2A2 DDB2RXXZZRRGGC2C2 D2D2E2E2F2G2H2I2EECB 2DDF2F2J2K2 L2L2 M2M2VVM2M2XXN2N2FFM2 M2CCM2M2N2N2 POM2M2M2M2CM2O2O2XXC C ZZP2Q2M2M2Accept thou shrine of my dead saint | A |
Instead of dirges this complaint | A |
And for sweet flow'rs to crown thy hearse | B |
From thy griev'd friend whom thou might'st see | C |
Quite melted into tears for thee | C |
Dear loss since thy untimely fate | D |
My task hath been to meditate | D |
On thee on thee thou art the book | E |
The library whereon I look | E |
Though almost blind For thee lov'd clay | F |
I languish out not live the day | F |
Using no other exercise | G |
But what I practise with mine eyes | G |
By which wet glasses I find out | H |
How lazily time creeps about | H |
To one that mourns this only this | I |
My exercise and bus'ness is | J |
So I compute the weary hours | K |
With sighs dissolved into showers | K |
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Nor wonder if my time go thus | L |
Backward and most preposterous | L |
Thou hast benighted me thy set | M |
This eve of blackness did beget | M |
Who wast my day though overcast | N |
Before thou hadst thy noon tide past | N |
And I remember must in tears | O |
Thou scarce hadst seen so many years | P |
As day tells hours By thy clear sun | Q |
My love and fortune first did run | Q |
But thou wilt never more appear | R |
Folded within my hemisphere | R |
Since both thy light and mot i on | S |
Like a fled star is fall'n and gone | T |
And 'twixt me and my soul's dear wish | U |
An earth now interposed is | J |
Which such a strange eclipse doth make | V |
As ne'er was read in almanac | W |
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I could allow thee for a time | X |
To darken me and my sad clime | X |
Were it a month a year or ten | Y |
I would thy exile live till then | Y |
And all that space my mirth adjourn | Z |
So thou wouldst promise to return | Z |
And putting off thy ashy shroud | A2 |
At length disperse this sorrow's cloud | A2 |
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But woe is me the longest date | D |
Too narrow is to calculate | D |
These empty hopes never shall I | B2 |
Be so much blest as to descry | R |
A glimpse of thee till that day come | X |
Which shall the earth to cinders doom | X |
And a fierce fever must calcine | Z |
The body of this world like thine | Z |
My little world That fit of fire | R |
Once off our bodies shall aspire | R |
To our souls' bliss then we shall rise | G |
And view ourselves with clearer eyes | G |
In that calm region where no night | C2 |
Can hide us from each other's sight | C2 |
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Meantime thou hast her earth much good | D2 |
May my harm do thee Since it stood | D2 |
With heaven's will I might not call | E2 |
Her longer mine I give thee all | E2 |
My short liv'd right and interest | F2 |
In her whom living I lov'd best | G2 |
With a most free and bounteous grief | H2 |
I give thee what I could not keep | I2 |
Be kind to her and prithee look | E |
Thou write into thy doomsday book | E |
Each parcel of this rarity | C |
Which in thy casket shrin'd doth lie | B2 |
See that thou make thy reck'ning straight | D |
And yield her back again by weight | D |
For thou must audit on thy trust | F2 |
Each grain and atom of this dust | F2 |
As thou wilt answer Him that lent | J2 |
Not gave thee my dear monument | K2 |
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So close the ground and 'bout her shade | L2 |
Black curtains draw my bride is laid | L2 |
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Sleep on my love in thy cold bed | M2 |
Never to be disquieted | M2 |
My last good night Thou wilt not wake | V |
Till I thy fate shall overtake | V |
Till age or grief or sickness must | M2 |
Marry my body to that dust | M2 |
It so much loves and fill the room | X |
My heart keeps empty in thy tomb | X |
Stay for me there I will not fail | N2 |
To meet thee in that hollow vale | N2 |
And think not much of my delay | F |
I am already on the way | F |
And follow thee with all the speed | M2 |
Desire can make or sorrows breed | M2 |
Each minute is a short degree | C |
And ev'ry hour a step towards thee | C |
At night when I betake to rest | M2 |
Next morn I rise nearer my west | M2 |
Of life almost by eight hours' sail | N2 |
Than when sleep breath'd his drowsy gale | N2 |
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Thus from the sun my bottom steers | P |
And my day's compass downward bears | O |
Nor labour I to stem the tide | M2 |
Through which to thee I swiftly glide | M2 |
'Tis true with shame and grief I yield | M2 |
Thou like the van first took'st the field | M2 |
And gotten hath the victory | C |
In thus adventuring to die | M2 |
Before me whose more years might crave | O2 |
A just precedence in the grave | O2 |
But hark my pulse like a soft drum | X |
Beats my approach tells thee I come | X |
And slow howe'er my marches be | C |
I shall at last sit down by thee | C |
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The thought of this bids me go on | Z |
And wait my dissolut i on | Z |
With hope and comfort Dear forgive | P2 |
The crime I am content to live | Q2 |
Divided with but half a heart | M2 |
Till we shall meet and never part | M2 |
Henry King
(1)
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