Elegy Xviii: Love's Progress Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFGHHIIFGJJ KLHHMMNOPPQQRSTTUUVV WWXYZA2WWNOB2C2D2E2O F2G2G2H2I2WWJ2F2JJII IIWWIIIIWWIIWWHHIIK2 K2JJIIL2L2IIWho ever loves if he do not propose | A |
The right true end of love he's one that goes | A |
To sea for nothing but to make him sick | B |
Love is a bear whelp born if we o'erlick | B |
Our love and force it new strange shapes to take | C |
We err and of a lump a monster make | C |
Were not a calf a monster that were grown | D |
Faced like a man though better than his own | D |
Perfection is in unity prefer | E |
One woman first and then one thing in her | E |
I when I value gold may think upon | F |
The ductileness the application | G |
The wholsomeness the ingenuity | H |
From rust from soil from fire ever free | H |
But if I love it 'tis because 'tis made | I |
By our new nature Use the soul of trade | I |
All these in women we might think upon | F |
If women had them and yet love but one | G |
Can men more injure women than to say | J |
They love them for that by which they're not they | J |
Makes virtue woman Must I cool my blood | K |
Till I both be and find one wise and good | L |
May barren angels love so But if we | H |
Make love to woman virtue is not she | H |
As beauty's not nor wealth He that strays thus | M |
From her to hers is more adulterous | M |
Than if he took her maid Search every sphere | N |
And firmament our Cupid is not there | O |
He's an infernal god and under ground | P |
With Pluto dwells where gold and fire abound | P |
Men to such gods their sacrificing coals | Q |
Did not in altars lay but pits and holes | Q |
Although we see celestial bodies move | R |
Above the earth the earth we till and love | S |
So we her airs contemplate words and heart | T |
And virtues but we love the centric part | T |
Nor is the soul more worthy or more fit | U |
For love than this as infinite is it | U |
But in attaining this desired place | V |
How much they err that set out at the face | V |
The hair a forest is of ambushes | W |
Of springs snares fetters and manacles | W |
The brow becalms us when 'tis smooth and plain | X |
And when 'tis wrinkled shipwrecks us again | Y |
Smooth 'tis a paradise where we would have | Z |
Immortal stay and wrinkled 'tis our grave | A2 |
The nose like to the first meridian runs | W |
Not 'twixt an East and West but 'twixt two suns | W |
It leaves a cheek a rosy hemisphere | N |
On either side and then directs us where | O |
Upon the Islands Fortunate we fall | B2 |
Not faint Canaries but Ambrosial | C2 |
Her swelling lips to which when we are come | D2 |
We anchor there and think ourselves at home | E2 |
For they seem all there Sirens' songs and there | O |
Wise Delphic oracles do fill the ear | F2 |
There in a creek where chosen pearls do swell | G2 |
The remora her cleaving tongue doth dwell | G2 |
These and the glorious promontory her chin | H2 |
O'erpassed and the straight Hellespont between | I2 |
The Sestos and Abydos of her breasts | W |
Not of two lovers but two loves the nests | W |
Succeeds a boundless sea but yet thine eye | J2 |
Some island moles may scattered there descry | F2 |
And sailing towards her India in that way | J |
Shall at her fair Atlantic navel stay | J |
Though thence the current be thy pilot made | I |
Yet ere thou be where thou wouldst be embayed | I |
Thou shalt upon another forest set | I |
Where many shipwreck and no further get | I |
When thou art there consider what this chase | W |
Misspent by thy beginning at the face | W |
Rather set out below practise my art | I |
Some symetry the foot hath with that part | I |
Which thou dost seek and is thy map for that | I |
Lovely enough to stop but not stay at | I |
Least subject to disguise and change it is | W |
Men say the devil never can change his | W |
It is the emblem that hath figured | I |
Firmness 'tis the first part that comes to bed | I |
Civility we see refined the kiss | W |
Which at the face began transplanted is | W |
Since to the hand since to the imperial knee | H |
Now at the papal foot delights to be | H |
If kings think that the nearer way and do | I |
Rise from the foot lovers may do so too | I |
For as free spheres move faster far than can | K2 |
Birds whom the air resists so may that man | K2 |
Which goes this empty and ethereal way | J |
Than if at beauty's elements he stay | J |
Rich nature hath in women wisely made | I |
Two purses and their mouths aversely laid | I |
They then which to the lower tribute owe | L2 |
That way which that exchequer looks must go | L2 |
He which doth not his error is as great | I |
As who by clyster gave the stomach meat | I |
John Donne
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