Love's Diet Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDED FGFGHH IFIFJK LHLHM NONPQQ| To what a cumbersome unwieldiness | A |
| And burdenous corpulence my love had grown | B |
| But that I did to make it less | C |
| And keep it in proportion | D |
| Give it a diet made it feed upon | E |
| That which love worst endures discretion | D |
| - | |
| Above one sigh a day I allow'd him not | F |
| Of which my fortune and my faults had part | G |
| And if sometimes by stealth he got | F |
| A she sigh from my mistress' heart | G |
| And thought to feast upon that I let him see | H |
| 'Twas neither very sound nor meant to me | H |
| - | |
| If he wrung from me a tear I brined it so | I |
| With scorn and shame that him it nourish'd not | F |
| If he suck'd hers I let him know | I |
| 'Twas not a tear which he had got | F |
| His drink was counterfeit as was his meat | J |
| For eyes which roll towards all weep not but sweat | K |
| - | |
| Whatever he would dictate I writ that | L |
| But burnt her letters when she writ to me | H |
| And if that favour made him fat | L |
| I said 'If any title be | H |
| Convey'd by this ah what doth it avail | M |
| To be the fortieth name in an entail ' | - |
| - | |
| Thus I reclaim'd my buzzard love to fly | N |
| At what and when and how and where I choose | O |
| Now negligent of sports I lie | N |
| And now as other falconers use | P |
| I spring a mistress swear write sigh and weep | Q |
| And the game kill'd or lost go talk or sleep | Q |
John Donne
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Love's Diet poem by John Donne
Best Poems of John Donne