Elegy Xi: The Bracelet Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDDEFGHIAJJKLMBNN OOPPQQDRSSQQTTQQUUVV WXRRYYZZRRYYNIA2A2YY A2A2QQZZYYRDB2B2RRYY AIQQAARRSSANQQRRYYRR QQRRB2B2SSDDYYXXYYC2 D2YYUpon 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)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Elegy Xi: The Bracelet poem by John Donne
Best Poems of John Donne