My Mistress Commanding Me To Return Her Letters. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCAADDEFGGHIAAJJ JJKKLMAANNOOPPAAQQRR SSCCRRAATTUVRRAAAADD WWXXYYSSYYEFNNQQCCAA| SO grieves th' adventurous merchant when he throws | A |
| All the long toil'd for treasure his ship stows | A |
| Into the angry main to save from wrack | B |
| Himself and men as I grieve to give back | B |
| These letters yet so powerful is your sway | C |
| As if you bid me die I must obey | C |
| Go then blest papers you shall kiss those hands | A |
| That gave you freedom but hold me in bands | A |
| Which with a touch did give you life but I | D |
| Because I may not touch those hands must die | D |
| Methinks as if they knew they should be sent | E |
| Home to their native soil from banishment | F |
| I see them smile like dying saints that know | G |
| They are to leave the earth and toward heaven go | G |
| When you return pray tell your sovereign | H |
| And mine I gave you courteous entertain | I |
| Each line received a tear and then a kiss | A |
| First bathed in that it 'scaped unscorch'd from this | A |
| I kiss'd it because your hand had been there | J |
| But 'cause it was not now I shed a tear | J |
| Tell her no length of time nor change of air | J |
| No cruelty disdain absence despair | J |
| No nor her steadfast constancy can deter | K |
| My vassal heart from ever honouring her | K |
| Though these be powerful arguments to prove | L |
| I love in vain yet I must ever love | M |
| Say if she frown when you that word rehearse | A |
| Service in prose is oft called love in verse | A |
| Then pray her since I send back on my part | N |
| Her papers she will send me back my heart | N |
| If she refuse warn her to come before | O |
| The god of love whom thus I will implore | O |
| Trav'lling thy country's road great god I spied | P |
| By chance this lady and walk'd by her side | P |
| From place to place fearing no violence | A |
| For I was well arm'd and had made defence | A |
| In former fights 'gainst fiercer foes than she | Q |
| Did at our first encounter seem to be | Q |
| But going farther every step reveal'd | R |
| Some hidden weapon till that time conceal'd | R |
| Seeing those outward arms I did begin | S |
| To fear some greater strength was lodged within | S |
| Looking into her mind I might survey | C |
| An host of beauties that in ambush lay | C |
| And won the day before they fought the field | R |
| For I unable to resist did yield | R |
| But the insulting tyrant so destroys | A |
| My conquer'd mind my ease my peace my joys | A |
| Breaks my sweet sleeps invades my harmless rest | T |
| Robs me of all the treasure of my breast | T |
| Spares not my heart nor yet a greater wrong | U |
| For having stol'n my heart she binds my tongue | V |
| But at the last her melting eyes unseal'd | R |
| My lips enlarged my tongue then I reveal'd | R |
| To her own ears the story of my harms | A |
| Wrought by her virtues and her beauty's charms | A |
| Now hear just judge an act of savageness | A |
| When I complain in hope to find redress | A |
| She bends her andry brow and from her eye | D |
| Shoots thousand darts I then well hoped to die | D |
| But in such sovereign balm Love dips his shot | W |
| That though they wound a heart they kill it not | W |
| She saw the blood gush forth from many a wound | X |
| Yet fled and left me bleeding on the ground | X |
| Nor sought my cure nor saw me since 'tis true | Y |
| Absence and Time two cunning leaches drew | Y |
| The flesh together yet sure though the skin | S |
| Be closed without the wound festers within | S |
| Thus hath this cruel lady used a true | Y |
| Servant and subject to herself and you | Y |
| Nor know I great Love if my life be lent | E |
| To show thy mercy or my punishment | F |
| Since by the only magic of thy art | N |
| A lover still may live that wants his heart | N |
| If this indictment fright her so as she | Q |
| Seem willing to return my heart to me | Q |
| But cannot find it for perhaps it may | C |
| 'Mongst other trifling hearts be out o' th' way | C |
| If she repent and would make me amends | A |
| Bid her but send me hers and we are friends | A |
Thomas Carew
(1)
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