Elegy Xvi: The Expostulation Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGDDDDHI JJKKKKLBDDDDAAKKMMNN KKOKDDDDPPQQRRDDHHDD DDSTDDGUVV| TO make the doubt clear that no woman's true | A |
| Was it my fate to prove it strong in you | A |
| Thought I but one had breath d purest air | B |
| And must she needs be false because she's fair | B |
| Is it your beauty's mark or of your youth | C |
| Or your perfection not to study truth | C |
| Or think you heaven is deaf or hath no eyes | D |
| Or those it hath smile at your perjuries | D |
| Are vows so cheap with women or the matter | E |
| Whereof they're made that they are writ in water | E |
| And blown away with wind Or doth their breath | F |
| Both hot and cold at once make life and death | F |
| Who could have thought so many accents sweet | G |
| Form'd into words so may sighs should meet | G |
| As from our hearts so many oaths and tears | D |
| Sprinkled among all sweeten'd by our fears | D |
| And the divine impression of stolen kisses | D |
| That seal'd the rest should now prove empty blisses | D |
| Did you draw bonds to forfeit sign to break | H |
| Or must we read you quite from what you speak | I |
| And find the truth out the wrong way or must | J |
| He first desire you false would wish you just | J |
| O I profane though most of women be | K |
| This kind of beast my thoughts shall except thee | K |
| My dearest love though froward jealousy | K |
| With circumstance might urge thy inconstancy | K |
| Sooner I'll think the sun will cease to cheer | L |
| The teeming earth and that forget to bear | B |
| Sooner that rivers will run back or Thames | D |
| With ribs of ice in June will bind his streams | D |
| Or nature by whose strength the world endures | D |
| Would change her course before you alter yours | D |
| But O that treacherous breast to whom weak you | A |
| Did drift our counsels and we both may rue | A |
| Having his falsehood found too late 'twas he | K |
| That made me cast you guilty and you me | K |
| Whilst he black wretch betray'd each simple word | M |
| We spake unto the cunning of a third | M |
| Cursed may he be that so our love hath slain | N |
| And wander on the earth wretched as Cain | N |
| Wretched as he and not deserve least pity | K |
| In plaguing him let misery be witty | K |
| Let all eyes shun him and he shun each eye | O |
| Till he be noisome as his infamy | K |
| May he without remorse deny God thrice | D |
| And not be trusted more on his soul's price | D |
| And after all self torment when he dies | D |
| May wolves tear out his heart vultures his eyes | D |
| Swine eat his bowels and his falser tongue | P |
| That utter'd all be to some raven flung | P |
| And let his carrion corse be a longer feast | Q |
| To the king's dogs than any other beast | Q |
| Now have I cursed let us our love revive | R |
| In me the flame was never more alive | R |
| I could begin again to court and praise | D |
| And in that pleasure lengthen the short days | D |
| Of my life's lease like painters that do take | H |
| Delight not in made work but whiles they make | H |
| I could renew those times when first I saw | D |
| Love in your eyes that gave my tongue the law | D |
| To like what you liked and at masks and plays | D |
| Commend the self same actors the same ways | D |
| Ask how you did and often with intent | S |
| Of being officious be impertinent | T |
| All which were such soft pastimes as in these | D |
| Love was as subtly catch'd as a disease | D |
| But being got it is a treasure sweet | G |
| Which to defend is harder than to get | U |
| And ought not be profaned on either part | V |
| For though 'tis got by chance 'tis kept by art | V |
John Donne
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