Elegy Iv: The Perfume Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEEFGHIJJDDDDEE EEEEFGEEAAAADDKBEEAA DDDDDDDDLLBBDDLADDMM DDLLLLAANNAJ| Once and but once found in thy company | A |
| All thy supposed escapes are laid on me | A |
| And as a thief at bar is questioned there | B |
| By all the men that have been robed that year | C |
| So am I by this traiterous means surprized | D |
| By thy hydroptic father catechized | D |
| Though he had wont to search with glazed eyes | E |
| As though he came to kill a cockatrice | E |
| Though he hath oft sworn that he would remove | F |
| Thy beauty's beauty and food of our love | G |
| Hope of his goods if I with thee were seen | H |
| Yet close and secret as our souls we've been | I |
| Though thy immortal mother which doth lie | J |
| Still buried in her bed yet wiil not die | J |
| Takes this advantage to sleep out daylight | D |
| And watch thy entries and returns all night | D |
| And when she takes thy hand and would seem kind | D |
| Doth search what rings and armlets she can find | D |
| And kissing notes the colour of thy face | E |
| And fearing lest thou'rt swol'n doth thee embrace | E |
| To try if thou long doth name strange meats | E |
| And notes thy paleness blushing sighs and sweats | E |
| And politicly will to thee confess | E |
| The sins of her own youth's rank lustiness | E |
| Yet love these sorceries did remove and move | F |
| Thee to gull thine own mother for my love | G |
| Thy little brethren which like faery sprites | E |
| Oft skipped into our chamber those sweet nights | E |
| And kissed and ingled on thy father's knee | A |
| Were bribed next day to tell what they did see | A |
| The grim eight foot high iron bound servingman | A |
| That oft names God in oaths and only then | A |
| He that to bar the first gate doth as wide | D |
| As the great Rhodian Colossus stride | D |
| Which if in hell no other pains there were | K |
| Makes me fear hell because he must be there | B |
| Though by thy father he were hired to this | E |
| Could never witness any touch or kiss | E |
| But Oh too common ill I brought with me | A |
| That which betrayed me to my enemy | A |
| A loud perfume which at my entrance cried | D |
| Even at thy father's nose so were we spied | D |
| When like a tyran King that in his bed | D |
| Smelt gunpowder the pale wretch shivered | D |
| Had it been some bad smell he would have thought | D |
| That his own feet or breath that smell had wrought | D |
| But as we in our isle imprisoned | D |
| Where cattle only and diverse dogs are bred | D |
| The precious Unicorns strange monsters call | L |
| So thought he good strange that had none at all | L |
| I taught my silks their whistling to forbear | B |
| Even my oppressed shoes dumb and speechless were | B |
| Only thou bitter sweet whom I had laid | D |
| Next me me traiterously hast betrayed | D |
| And unsuspected hast invisibly | L |
| At once fled unto him and stayed with me | A |
| Base excrement of earth which dost confound | D |
| Sense from distinguishing the sick from sound | D |
| By thee the seely amorous sucks his death | M |
| By drawing in a leprous harlot's breath | M |
| By thee the greatest stain to man's estate | D |
| Falls on us to be called effeminate | D |
| Though you be much loved in the Prince's hall | L |
| There things that seem exceed substantial | L |
| Gods when ye fumed on altars were pleased well | L |
| Because you were burnt not that they liked your smell | L |
| You're loathsome all being taken simply alone | A |
| Shall we love ill things joined and hate each one | A |
| If you were good your good doth soon decay | N |
| And you are rare that takes the good away | N |
| All my perfumes I give most willingly | A |
| T' embalm thy father's corse What will he die | J |
John Donne
(1)
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About Elegy Iv: The Perfume
Elegy Iv: The Perfume is a poem by John Donne. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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