Elegy Xix: To His Mistress Going To Bed Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFAGGHHIIFF HHBB HHJJHFFF FFKLMMNNFAHHOPQQ| Come madam come all rest my powers defy | A |
| Until I labor I in labor lie | A |
| The foe oft times having the foe in sight | B |
| Is tired with standing though he never fight | B |
| Off with that girdle like heaven's zone glistering | C |
| But a far fairer world encompassing | C |
| Unpin that spangled breastplate which you wear | D |
| That th' eyes of busy fools may be stopped there | D |
| Unlace yourself for that harmonious chime | E |
| Tells me from you that now it is bed time | E |
| Off with that happy busk which I envy | F |
| That still can be and still can stand so nigh | A |
| Your gown going off such beauteous state reveals | G |
| As when from flowry meads th' hill's shadow steals | G |
| Off with that wiry coronet and show | H |
| The hairy diadem which on you doth grow | H |
| Now off with those shoes and then safely tread | I |
| In this love's hallowed temple this soft bed | I |
| In such white robes heaven's angels used to be | F |
| Received by men thou Angel bring'st with thee | F |
| A heaven like Mahomet's Paradise and though | H |
| Ill spirits walk in white we easily know | H |
| By this these angels from an evil sprite | B |
| Those set our hairs but these our flesh upright | B |
| - | |
| License my roving hands and let them go | H |
| Before behind between above below | H |
| O my America my new found land | J |
| My kingdom safeliest when with one man manned | J |
| My mine of precious stones my empery | H |
| How blest am I in this discovering of thee | F |
| To enter in these bonds is to be free | F |
| Then where my hand is set my seal shall be | F |
| - | |
| Full nakedness All joys are due to thee | F |
| As souls unbodied bodies unclothed must be | F |
| To taste whole joys Gems which you women use | K |
| Are like Atlanta's balls cast in men's views | L |
| That when a fools' eye lighteth on a gem | M |
| His earthly soul may covet theirs not them | M |
| Like pictures or like books' gay coverings made | N |
| For lay men are all women thus arrayed | N |
| Themselves are mystic books which only we | F |
| Whom their imputed grace will dignify | A |
| Must see revealed Then since that I may know | H |
| As liberally as to a midwife show | H |
| Thyself cast all yea this white linen hence | O |
| There is no penance due to innocence | P |
| To teach thee I am naked first why than | Q |
| What needst thou have more covering than a man | Q |
John Donne
(1)
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