Mr. Robert Herrick: His Farewell Unto Poetry Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIBB JJKKLLMMNOPQRSQIFFTT UUVVWXBBYYZZFFA2A2B2 B2C2C2BBD2D2BBMMGGE2 F2G2H2I2RJ2J2K2L2M2N 2BBMMO2O2P2P2Q2Q2J2J 2R2R2S2S2T2U2DDMM| I have beheld two lovers in a night | A |
| Hatched o'er with moonshine from their stolen delight | A |
| When this to that and that to this had given | B |
| A kiss to such a jewel of the heaven | B |
| Or while that each from other's breath did drink | C |
| Health to the rose the violet or pink | C |
| Call'd on the sudden by the jealous mother | D |
| Some stricter mistress or suspicious other | D |
| Urging divorcement worse than death to these | E |
| By the soon jingling of some sleepy keys | E |
| Part with a hasty kiss and in that show | F |
| How stay they would yet forced they are to go | F |
| Even such are we and in our parting do | G |
| No otherwise than as those former two | G |
| Natures like ours we who have spent our time | H |
| Both from the morning to the evening chime | H |
| Nay till the bellman of the night had tolled | I |
| Past noon of night yet wear the hours not old | I |
| Nor dulled with iron sleep but have outworn | B |
| The fresh and fairest nourish of the morn | B |
| With flame and rapture drinking to the odd | J |
| Number of nine which makes us full with God | J |
| And in that mystic frenzy we have hurled | K |
| As with a tempest nature through the world | K |
| And in a whirlwind twirl'd her home aghast | L |
| At that which in her ecstasy had past | L |
| Thus crowned with rosebuds sack thou mad'st me fly | M |
| Like fire drakes yet didst me no harm thereby | M |
| O thou almighty nature who didst give | N |
| True heat wherewith humanity doth live | O |
| Beyond its stinted circle giving food | P |
| White fame and resurrection to the good | Q |
| Shoring them up 'bove ruin till the doom | R |
| The general April of the world doth come | S |
| That makes all equal Many thousands should | Q |
| Were't not for thee have crumbled into mould | I |
| And with their serecloths rotted not to show | F |
| Whether the world such spirits had or no | F |
| Whereas by thee those and a million since | T |
| Nor fate nor envy can their fames convince | T |
| Homer Mus us Ovid Maro more | U |
| Of those godful prophets long before | U |
| Held their eternal fires and ours of late | V |
| Thy mercy helping shall resist strong fate | V |
| Nor stoop to the centre but survive as long | W |
| As fame or rumour hath or trump or tongue | X |
| But unto me be only hoarse since now | B |
| Heaven and my soul bear record of my vow | B |
| I my desires screw from thee and direct | Y |
| Them and my thoughts to that sublim'd respect | Y |
| And conscience unto priesthood 'tis not need | Z |
| The scarecrow unto mankind that doth breed | Z |
| Wiser conclusions in me since I know | F |
| I've more to bear my charge than way to go | F |
| Or had I not I'd stop the spreading itch | A2 |
| Of craving more so in conceit be rich | A2 |
| But 'tis the God of Nature who intends | B2 |
| And shapes my function for more glorious ends | B2 |
| Kiss so depart yet stay a while to see | C2 |
| The lines of sorrow that lie drawn in me | C2 |
| In speech in picture no otherwise than when | B |
| Judgment and death denounced 'gainst guilty men | B |
| Each takes a weeping farewell racked in mind | D2 |
| With joys before and pleasures left behind | D2 |
| Shaking the head whilst each to each doth mourn | B |
| With thought they go whence they must ne'er return | B |
| So with like looks as once the ministrel | M |
| Cast leading his Eurydice through hell | M |
| I strike thy love and greedily pursue | G |
| Thee with mine eyes or in or out of view | G |
| So looked the Grecian orator when sent | E2 |
| From's native country into banishment | F2 |
| Throwing his eyeballs backward to survey | G2 |
| The smoke of his beloved Attica | H2 |
| So Tully looked when from the breasts of Rome | I2 |
| The sad soul went not with his love but doom | R |
| Shooting his eyedarts 'gainst it to surprise | J2 |
| It or to draw the city to his eyes | J2 |
| Such is my parting with thee and to prove | K2 |
| There was not varnish only in my love | L2 |
| But substance lo receive this pearly tear | M2 |
| Frozen with grief and place it in thine ear | N2 |
| Then part in name of peace and softly on | B |
| With numerous feet to hoofy Helicon | B |
| And when thou art upon that forked hill | M |
| Amongst the thrice three sacred virgins fill | M |
| A full brimm'd bowl of fury and of rage | O2 |
| And quaff it to the prophets of our age | O2 |
| When drunk with rapture curse the blind and lame | P2 |
| Base ballad mongers who usurp thy name | P2 |
| And foul thy altar charm some into frogs | Q2 |
| Some to be rats and others to be hogs | Q2 |
| Into the loathsom'st shapes thou canst devise | J2 |
| To make fools hate them only by disguise | J2 |
| Thus with a kiss of warmth and love I part | R2 |
| Not so but that some relic in my heart | R2 |
| Shall stand for ever though I do address | S2 |
| Chiefly myself to what I must profess | S2 |
| Know yet rare soul when my diviner muse | T2 |
| Shall want a handmaid as she oft will use | U2 |
| Be ready thou for me to wait upon her | D |
| Though as a servant yet a maid of honour | D |
| The crown of duty is our duty well | M |
| Doing's the fruit of doing well Farewell | M |
Robert Herrick
(1)
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