Elegy Xi: The Bracelet Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDDEFGHIAJJKLMBNN OOPPQQDRSSQQTTQQUUVV WXRRYYZZRRYYNIA2A2YY A2A2QQZZYYRDB2B2RRYY AIQQAARRSSANQQRRYYRR QQRRB2B2SSDDYYXXYYC2 D2YY| Upon the Loss of His Mistress s Chain for Which He Made Satisfaction | A |
| - | |
| NOT that in colour it was like thy hair | B |
| For armlets of that thou mayst let me wear | B |
| Nor that thy hand it oft embraced and kiss'd | C |
| For so it had that good which oft I miss'd | C |
| Nor for that silly old morality | D |
| That as these links were knit our love should be | D |
| Mourn I that I thy sevenfold chain have lost | E |
| Nor for the luck sake but the bitter cost | F |
| O shall twelve righteous angels which as yet | G |
| No leaven of vile solder did admit | H |
| Nor yet by any way have stray'd or gone | I |
| From the first state of their creation | A |
| Angels which heaven commanded to provide | J |
| All things to me and be my faithful guide | J |
| To gain new friends to appease great enemies | K |
| To comfort my soul when I lie or rise | L |
| Shall these twelve innocents by thy severe | M |
| Sentence dread judge my sin's great burden bear | B |
| Shall they be damn'd and in the furnace thrown | N |
| And punish'd for offenses not their own | N |
| They save not me they do not ease my pains | O |
| When in that hell they're burnt and tied in chains | O |
| Were they but crowns of France I car d not | P |
| For most of these their country's natural rot | P |
| I think possesseth they come here to us | Q |
| So pale so lame so lean so ruinous | Q |
| And howsoe'er French kings most Christian be | D |
| Their crowns are circumcised most Jewishly | R |
| Or were they Spanish stamps still travelling | S |
| That are become as Catholic as their king | S |
| These unlick'd bear whelps unfiled pistolets | Q |
| That more than cannon shot avails or lets | Q |
| Which negligently left unrounded look | T |
| Like many angled figures in the book | T |
| Of some great conjurer that would enforce | Q |
| Nature so these do justice from her course | Q |
| Which as the soul quickens head feet and heart | U |
| As streams like veins run through th' earth's every part | U |
| Visit all countries and have slily made | V |
| Gorgeous France ruin'd ragged and decay'd | V |
| Scotland which knew no state proud in one day | W |
| And mangled seventeen headed Belgia | X |
| Or were it such gold as that wherewithal | R |
| Almighty chemics from each mineral | R |
| Having by subtle fire a soul out pull'd | Y |
| Are dirtily and desperately gull'd | Y |
| I would not spit to quench the fire they're in | Z |
| For they are guilty of much heinous sin | Z |
| But shall my harmless angels perish Shall | R |
| I lose my guard my ease my food my all | R |
| Much hope which they would nourish will be dead | Y |
| Much of my able youth and lustihead | Y |
| Will vanish if thou love let them alone | N |
| For thou wilt love me less when they are gone | I |
| And be content that some loud squeaking crier | A2 |
| Well pleas'd with one lean threadbare groat for hire | A2 |
| May like a devil roar through every street | Y |
| And gall the finder's conscience if he meet | Y |
| Or let me creep to some dread conjurer | A2 |
| That with fantastic schemes fills full much paper | A2 |
| Which hath divided heaven in tenements | Q |
| And with whores thieves and murderers stuff'd his rents | Q |
| So full that though he pass them all in sin | Z |
| He leaves himself no room to enter in | Z |
| But if when all his art and time is spent | Y |
| He say 'twill ne'er be found yet be content | Y |
| Receive from him that doom ungrudgingly | R |
| Because he is the mouth of destiny | D |
| Thou say'st alas the gold doth still remain | B2 |
| Though it be changed and put into a chain | B2 |
| So in the first fallen angels resteth still | R |
| Wisdom and knowledge but 'tis turn'd to ill | R |
| As these should do good works and should provide | Y |
| Necessities but now must nurse thy pride | Y |
| And they are still bad angels mine are none | A |
| For form gives being and their form is gone | I |
| Pity these angels yet their dignities | Q |
| Pass Virtues Powers and Principalities | Q |
| But thou art resolute thy will be done | A |
| Yet with such anguish as her only son | A |
| The mother in the hungry grave doth lay | R |
| Unto the fire these martyrs I betray | R |
| Good souls for you give life to everything | S |
| Good angels for good messages you bring | S |
| Destined you might have been to such an one | A |
| As would have loved and worshipp'd you alone | N |
| One that would suffer hunger nakedness | Q |
| Yea death ere he would make your number less | Q |
| But I am guilty of your sad decay | R |
| May your few fellows longer with me stay | R |
| But O thou wretched finder whom I hate | Y |
| So that I almost pity thy estate | Y |
| Gold being the heaviest metal amongst all | R |
| May my most heavy curse upon thee fall | R |
| Here fetter'd manacled and hang'd in chains | Q |
| First mayst thou be then chain'd to hellish pains | Q |
| Or be with foreign gold bribed to betray | R |
| Thy country and fail both of it and thy pay | R |
| May the next thing thou stoop'st to reach contain | B2 |
| Poison whose nimble fume rot thy moist brain | B2 |
| Or libels or some interdicted thing | S |
| Which negligently kept thy ruin bring | S |
| Lust bred diseases rot thee and dwell with thee | D |
| Itching desire and no ability | D |
| May all the evils that gold ever wrought | Y |
| All mischief that all devils ever thought | Y |
| Want after plenty poor and gouty age | X |
| The plagues of travellers love marriage | X |
| Afflict thee and at thy life's last moment | Y |
| May thy swollen sins themselves to thee present | Y |
| But I forgive repent thee honest man | C2 |
| Gold is restorative restore it then | D2 |
| But if from it thou be'st loth to depart | Y |
| Because 'tis cordial would 'twere at thy heart | Y |
John Donne
(1)
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About Elegy Xi: The Bracelet
Elegy Xi: The Bracelet is a poem by John Donne. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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