His Age:dedicated To His Peculiar Friend,mr John Wickes, Under The Name Ofpostumus Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDEFF GGBBHHII JJFFFFKK LLMMNNOO FFPMBBFF QRSSPPTT UUVVBBWW PPXXJJJJ JJBBFFPP YYZZIIFF PPAAPPFF BBA2A2B2C2PP FFPPPPBB JJBBPPA PPFFJJD2 PPE2WJJJJ FFF2G2H2H2JJ BBBBPPJJ FFI2I2JJPP| Ah Posthumus our years hence fly | A |
| And leave no sound nor piety | B |
| Or prayers or vow | C |
| Can keep the wrinkle from the brow | C |
| But we must on | D |
| As fate does lead or draw us none | E |
| None Posthumus could e'er decline | F |
| The doom of cruel Proserpine | F |
| - | |
| The pleasing wife the house the ground | G |
| Must all be left no one plant found | G |
| To follow thee | B |
| Save only the curst cypress tree | B |
| A merry mind | H |
| Looks forward scorns what's left behind | H |
| Let's live my Wickes then while we may | I |
| And here enjoy our holiday | I |
| - | |
| We've seen the past best times and these | J |
| Will ne'er return we see the seas | J |
| And moons to wane | F |
| But they fill up their ebbs again | F |
| But vanish'd man | F |
| Like to a lily lost ne'er can | F |
| Ne'er can repullulate or bring | K |
| His days to see a second spring | K |
| - | |
| But on we must and thither tend | L |
| Where Ancus and rich Tullus blend | L |
| Their sacred seed | M |
| Thus has infernal Jove decreed | M |
| We must be made | N |
| Ere long a song ere long a shade | N |
| Why then since life to us is short | O |
| Let's make it full up by our sport | O |
| - | |
| Crown we our heads with roses then | F |
| And 'noint with Tyrian balm for when | F |
| We two are dead | P |
| The world with us is buried | M |
| Then live we free | B |
| As is the air and let us be | B |
| Our own fair wind and mark each one | F |
| Day with the white and lucky stone | F |
| - | |
| We are not poor although we have | Q |
| No roofs of cedar nor our brave | R |
| Baiae nor keep | S |
| Account of such a flock of sheep | S |
| Nor bullocks fed | P |
| To lard the shambles barbels bred | P |
| To kiss our hands nor do we wish | T |
| For Pollio's lampreys in our dish | T |
| - | |
| If we can meet and so confer | U |
| Both by a shining salt cellar | U |
| And have our roof | V |
| Although not arch'd yet weather proof | V |
| And cieling free | B |
| From that cheap candle baudery | B |
| We'll eat our bean with that full mirth | W |
| As we were lords of all the earth | W |
| - | |
| Well then on what seas we are tost | P |
| Our comfort is we can't be lost | P |
| Let the winds drive | X |
| Our bark yet she will keep alive | X |
| Amidst the deeps | J |
| 'Tis constancy my Wickes which keeps | J |
| The pinnace up which though she errs | J |
| I' th' seas she saves her passengers | J |
| - | |
| Say we must part sweet mercy bless | J |
| Us both i' th' sea camp wilderness | J |
| Can we so far | B |
| Stray to become less circular | B |
| Than we are now | F |
| No no that self same heart that vow | F |
| Which made us one shall ne'er undo | P |
| Or ravel so to make us two | P |
| - | |
| Live in thy peace as for myself | Y |
| When I am bruised on the shelf | Y |
| Of time and show | Z |
| My locks behung with frost and snow | Z |
| When with the rheum | I |
| The cough the pthisic I consume | I |
| Unto an almost nothing then | F |
| The ages fled I'll call again | F |
| - | |
| And with a tear compare these last | P |
| Lame and bad times with those are past | P |
| While Baucis by | A |
| My old lean wife shall kiss it dry | A |
| And so we'll sit | P |
| By th' fire foretelling snow and slit | P |
| And weather by our aches grown | F |
| Now old enough to be our own | F |
| - | |
| True calendars as puss's ear | B |
| Wash'd o'er 's to tell what change is near | B |
| Then to assuage | A2 |
| The gripings of the chine by age | A2 |
| I'll call my young | B2 |
| Iulus to sing such a song | C2 |
| I made upon my Julia's breast | P |
| And of her blush at such a feast | P |
| - | |
| Then shall he read that flower of mine | F |
| Enclosed within a crystal shrine | F |
| A primrose next | P |
| A piece then of a higher text | P |
| For to beget | P |
| In me a more transcendant heat | P |
| Than that insinuating fire | B |
| Which crept into each aged sire | B |
| - | |
| When the fair Helen from her eyes | J |
| Shot forth her loving sorceries | J |
| At which I'll rear | B |
| Mine aged limbs above my chair | B |
| And hearing it | P |
| Flutter and crow as in a fit | P |
| Of fresh concupiscence and cry | A |
| 'No lust there's like to Poetry ' | - |
| - | |
| Thus frantic crazy man God wot | P |
| I'll call to mind things half forgot | P |
| And oft between | F |
| Repeat the times that I have seen | F |
| Thus ripe with tears | J |
| And twisting my Iulus' hairs | J |
| Doting I'll weep and say 'In truth | D2 |
| Baucis these were my sins of youth ' | - |
| - | |
| Then next I'Il cause my hopeful lad | P |
| If a wild apple can be had | P |
| To crown the hearth | E2 |
| Lar thus conspiring with our mirth | W |
| Then to infuse | J |
| Our browner ale into the cruse | J |
| Which sweetly spiced we'll first carouse | J |
| Unto the Genius of the house | J |
| - | |
| Then the next health to friends of mine | F |
| Loving the brave Burgundian wine | F |
| High sons of pith | F2 |
| Whose fortunes I have frolick'd with | G2 |
| Such as could well | H2 |
| Bear up the magic bough and spell | H2 |
| And dancing 'bout the mystic Thyrse | J |
| Give up the just applause to verse | J |
| - | |
| To those and then again to thee | B |
| We'll drink my Wickes until we be | B |
| Plump as the cherry | B |
| Though not so fresh yet full as merry | B |
| As the cricket | P |
| The untamed heifer or the pricket | P |
| Until our tongues shall tell our ears | J |
| We're younger by a score of years | J |
| - | |
| Thus till we see the fire less shine | F |
| From th' embers than the kitling's eyne | F |
| We'll still sit up | I2 |
| Sphering about the wassail cup | I2 |
| To all those times | J |
| Which gave me honour for my rhymes | J |
| The coal once spent we'll then to bed | P |
| Far more than night bewearied | P |
Robert Herrick
(1)
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About His Age:dedicated To His Peculiar Friend,mr John Wickes, Under The Name Ofpostumus
His Age:dedicated To His Peculiar Friend,mr John Wickes, Under The Name Ofpostumus is a poem by Robert Herrick. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.