Poetry is language arranged in lines. Like otherforms of
literature, poetry attempts to re-create emotions and experiences. Poetry,
however, is usually more condensed
and suggestive than prose.
Poems often are divided into stanzas, or paragraph-like groups of
lines. The stanzas in a poem may contain the same number of lines or may vary
in length. Some poems
have definite patterns of meter and rhyme. Others rely more on the
sounds of words and less on fixed rhythms and rhyme schemes. The use of
figurative language is also common in poetry.
The form and content of a poem combine to convey meaning. The way
that a poem is arranged on the page, the impact of the images, the sounds of
the words and phrases, and all the other details that make up a poem work
together to help the reader grasp its central idea.
In the most common use of the term, a lyric is any
fairly short poem, consisting of the utterance by a single speaker, who
expresses a state of mind or a process of perception, thought, and feeling.
The chief qualities or essentials
of a good lyric are:
1.It’s
a short poem, characterised by simplicity in language and treatment.
2.It
deals with a single emotion which is generally stated in the first few
lines. Then the poet gives us the
thoughts suggested by that particular emotion.
The last and concluding part is in the nature of a summary. In other words it is the conclusions reached
by the poet. Such is the development of
a lyric in general, but often these parts are not distinctly marked. In moments of intense emotional excitement
the poet may be carried away by his emotions and the lyric may develop along
entirely different lines. A lyric is
more often than not, mood-dictated.
3.It
is musical. Verbal music is an important
element in its appeal and charm. Various
devices are used by poets to enhance the music of their lyrics.
4.It
is an expression of the moods and emotions of a poet. However, a poet may not express merely his
emotions, he may also analyse them intellectually. Such intellectual analysis of emotion is an
important characteristics of the metaphysical lyrics of the early 17th
century. Such lyrics are also more
elaborate than the ordinary lyric.
5.It
is characterised by intensity and poignancy.
The best lyrics are the expressions of intensely felt emotions. Like fire, the intensity of the poet’s
emotion burns out the non-essentials, all attention is concentrated on the
basic emotion, and the gain in poignancy is enormous. It comes directly out of the heart of the
poet, and therefore goes directly to the heart of the readers. The lyric at best is poignant, pathetic and
intense.
6.Spontaneity
is another important quality of a lyric.
The lyric poet sings in strains of unpremeditated art. He sings effortlessly due to the inner urge
for self-expression. Any conscious
effort on his part, makes the lyric look unnatural and artificial.
Write a short note on
Prothalamion by Edmund Spenser.
Prothalamion is a spousal verse,
composed on the occasion of the wedding of Lady Elizabeth and Lady Katherine
Somerset to Henry Gilford and William Peter.
Though it does not reach the poetic excellence and richness of Epithalamion
it is undeniably a fine lyric exhibiting the same mastery of rhythmical and
musical effect and marked by a more evocative refrain.
David Daiches claims for the poem
a tapestry quality, an almost heraldic tone.
It falls short of Epithalamion in personal intensity in concentration of
effect and in unity of design. The
glaring weaknesses of the poem that mar its unity, are the intrusion of the
personal reminiscences, expression of his frustration, his tribute to Leicester
and Essex, and his nostalgic love of London, his most kindly nurse.
At the linguistic level the
defects are the use of vague clichés like fair, gentle and fine, and the
tedious wordplay in the description of the whiteness of the swans in the lines
40-45. However, it is an exquisite lyric
presenting a stylised picture with sensuous and mythological imagery.
Tennyson’s famous Elegy ‘In
Memorium’ has one hundred and thirty six sections, and they form a complete
poem. Different sections were written at
different times; and also these sections were written at different places. Such fashion was popular in his times; but he
did not like them to be published in a single poem. He said, “I did not write them with any view
weaving them into a whole, or for publication until I found I had written so
many.”
‘In Memorium’ was written as an
Elegy in memory of Arthur Henry Hallam, who died in 1833, the lyrics that
became sections was written over sixteen years.
The prologue to the poem was was added in 1849. The elegy commenced as an expression of
private and personal grief, but then broadened into an attempt to probe and
answer the spiritual problem of the age.
Tennyson’s great loss led him to reflect on the great problems of
religion; immortality, reality of evil and the free will. These questions were agitating every sincere
thinker of the age. The poem as a whole
is the record of his passage from a numbness of absolute despair to the larger
hope. Thus ‘In Memorium’ becomes a
lyrical and philosophical poem.
A short note
[Summary] on Epithalamion by Edmund Spenser.
According to
Mutter Epithalamion is one of the
greatest formal lyrics in English.
Legouis praises it as a great ode without a rival. It exceeds in richness and splendour all
compositions of the same kind. It is the
most gorgeous jewel in the treasure-house of the Renaissance. J.W. Mackail assigns to it the first place
not only among spenser’s lyrics but also among all English odes. It celebrates the marriage of Spenser with
Elizabeth Boyle. Audio Books
The ode adopts
the Italian Canzone. It has twenty three
stanzas of usually seventeen lines which are of unequal length and intricate
rhyme pattern, each stanza ending in a fourteen syllable line which forms a
varied refrain. The last seven lines are
tornata, an envoi, that expresses the poet’s desire to offer the poem as a gift
in lieu of the ornaments that have not reached her because of some accident. It bears the influence of Sappho,
Theocritus’s Epithalamium of Helen, Catallus’s The Wedding of Manlius and Vinia
and the epithalamia of the French Pleiade, Ronsard and Du Bellay. Its novelty lies in the narrator being the
poet who is also the bridegroom.
The poem unfolds
a canvas where mythological and Christian elements, literary reminiscence and
natural description blend harmoniously
to intensify the expression of the poet’s personal emotions. It radiates an aura of a pageant about
it. Its chief features are the invocation
of the Muse, the procession, feasting, the decoration of the bride, the praise
of her beauty, the bride’s arrival at the church, the marriage ceremony, the
preparation of the bridal chamber and prayer for their fruitful union.
Spenser’s
Platonic conception that the outward beauty is a reflection of the inner virtue
and purity, manifests itself in the description of the bride who is adorn’d
with beauty’s grace and virtue’s store.
The beauty of her body like a palace fair leads the mind with many a
stately stair to honour’s seat, to the seat of perfect virtue. Spenser’s celebration of ideal beauty, and
the Petrarchan deification of the lady
are conventional. Though the poem is
personal, it universalies the experience of love. The narration of events covering one day,
from morning to midnight imposes on the poem a unity in respect of the
subject-matter and of its emotional content.
As Mutter observes, the wealth of imagery is allied to the often
remarked musical quality of the poem to produce a total effect of strength and
controlled luxuriance which earns for it Coleridge’s praise of truly sublime.
Paraphrase/summary of the Poem
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost
Stanza 1.
The poet thinks that he knows whose
woods these are. He also knows that the
owner of these woods is a man who lives in the village. The forester, therefore, will not be able to
see him stopping beside the woods to watch them being covered up in snow.
Stanza 2.
The poet/speaker believes that his
little horse must think it odd to stop in these woods without a farm house
nearby between the woods and frozen lake on the darkest evening of the
year.
Stanza 3.
The horse gives a shake to the bells
of his rein to know if the poet has stood there by some mistake. The only other sound that is heard in the
woods is that of the wind and snowfall.
Stanza 4.
The woods are beautiful, dark and
deep to look at. But the poet speaker
has to keep his word given to others and therefore he has to go many miles to
reach the destination before he retires to bed for sleep.
The Theme of the Poem “Stopping by
Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost.
This short lyric of sixteen lines
begins with a description of the deep woods through which, the speaker is
passing on a dark, snowy evening. The
owner of the woods live away in the village, hence the owner won’t be able to
see the speaker at his property. A
reference to the snow occurs. The 2nd
and 3rd stanzas are found speculative about the little horse who is
not willing to stop beside the woods because no farm house is visible. He shakes, therefore, his harness bell to
know if the master has stopped because something has gone wrong. The 4th stanza is a beautiful sketch
about the woods but the speaker is reminded of his promise to return home. Thus he must continue his journey to cover up
the miles. Here the journey is life. Woods are deviations from the goals of life.
The Summary of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by S T Coleridge
One evening three guests were going to a marriage party, one
of them was stopped by an Ancient Mariner who insisted on telling a story which
is full of supernatural interest.
Once the ancient mariner and his companions were sailing in a
ship, they were overtaken by a storm and driven to the South Pole. The ship was surrounded by icebergs. After some time, an Albatross came up and
became friendly with the sailors. It was
a bird of good omen; the ice broke and good wind arose from the south. The ship moved and the great bird followed in
fog and snow; but then the old mariner shot the bird with the cross bow. The sailors became angry because they
believed that it would bring the curse, but then they praised the old man and
became partners in the sin.
The ship moved and they crossed the pacific and came to
equator; the days became calm and the chip could not move and stood as a
painted ship on a painted ocean. The
supply of fresh water ran out and they were all dying of thirst. They were cursed, and the carcass of the
albatross was hung around the neck of the ancient mariner.
The same went on for days, the sailors were dying of thirst;
there was salt water all around but not a single drop to drink. The sun was merciless. It became blistering hot. The slimy creatures of the sea rose to the
rotting waters. The sailors suffered,
and they accused the old mariner for their plight.
After several days of torment they saw a sail. The ancient mariner bit his arm and drank his
own blood and shouted with joy “A sail”.
It was a ghostly ship that moved on the still sea without wind or tide. The sailors on the ship were spell-bound, and
when the ghost ship came nearer, they saw a female monster named ‘Life-in-death’ who had red lips,
yellow hair and leprous skin. She was
playing a game of dice with her companion named Death-in-life. She won the
life of all sailors except the life of the ancient mariner. The old sailor was won by Death-in-life. Therefore he could not die but was left
to suffer the life of torture.
Death soon claimed his victims and the sailors were dying one
by one, and the ancient mariner was left alone to suffer the horrors and
torments of life-in-death. He was denied
the luxury of death. The slimy creatures
were alive; his companions were lying dead on the deck; he tried to pray but
the fountain of prayer was dried up and the curse of the dead sailors increased
his agony. Cold sweat dropped from the dead
bodies of the sailors, their eyes were open, and the ancient mariner had to pay
for his sin.
For seven days he remained in this wretched condition; he had
no company except that of the moon and the stars; the water snakes played
around in the water, and the moon beams shined on their bodies. Love began to gush from his heart and he
blessed those creatures. He then
realised he could pray. The load of sin
was lifted and the spell was broken. The
dead albatross dropped from his neck, and he fell into a deep sleep. When he woke up his thirst was quenched and
the wind was blowing. The dead sailors
came back to life because the troop of the angels animated the dead
bodies. The spirit of the South Pole
obeyed the angels and carried the ship, and it was filled with their music and
then they disappeared.
The old sailor again fell into sleep and heard two voices in
his dream; one was the voice of justice that demanded the punishment for
killing the albatross; the other was the voice of mercy that pleaded for the
ancient mariner and pointed out that he had suffered and done enough
penance. When the old man woke up, he
found his companions alive, the ship moving, and they came to their native
shore. It was the night-time, the
harbour was bathed in moonlight; and the light-house, as well as the church on
the hill-top were shining, he fell on his knees and prayed. The angelic spirits (Seraphs) waved their hands
and disappeared.
Then a boat from the harbour came; it contained a pilot, the
pilot’s boy and a hermit. When they
neared there was a big noise and the ancient mariner’s ship went down. But the old sailor was rescued; but his
strange appearance threw the pilot into a fit, and the hermit was shaken. They all began to pray for protection against
evil.
The ancient mariner took charge of the boat and brought it to
the shore. He begged of the hermit to
listen to his strange story and grant him absolution. The ancient mariner’s sin was not expiated
and he felt the agony that tormented his soul.
He travelled from place to place, and became a wanderer. He could find solace and relief when he told
his story to someone.
The ancient mariner finished his tale and pointed out to the
wedding-guest the lesson from his strange story; the best prayer is that which embodies the love of all creatures, great
and small, made by God, who loves us all.
The title under which Drayton wrote
this was The Ballad of Agincourt. This
poem and to the Virginian Voyage are, according to Hardin Craig, two of the
best ballads in English. Both of them
are classified as odes. They are
Horatian rather than Pindaric odes, though they lack the detached meditation
and streak of scepticism associated with the former. It doesnot strictly measure up a standard
ballad which is a narrative song, dramatic and impersonal, characterised by the
absence of sentimentality and a tragic conception of life. It does not follow the ballad stanza which is
a quatrain in alternate iambic trimester and tetrameter, with the second and
fourth lines rhyming. The devices of
refrain and incremental repetition are also absent. It tells the story with action and
dialogue. It exhibits the personal
emotion of the poet, that is, his patriotism.
However, it can be considered a variant form invented by Drayton to suit
his need. It is, as John Buxton remarks, metrical tour
de force with the verse beating a tattoo for King Harry and his men with
supreme gallantry. Drayton kept on
revising and polishing this poem from 1606 to 1619, till he could make clear,
to use the words of Harold Child, the ringing tramp of the marching army. With its stanzas of eight short, crisp lines,
rhyming aaabcccb, it is the model for a war poem.
Agincourt refers to the Battle of Agincourt (Agincourt
was a
village in France, where the battle took place) fought in 1415, in which
the English King, Henry V won a victory over the French.Drayton in the poem, pays a glowing tribute
to Henry V whose heroism according to him, sweeps away everything before
him.
Song to
Celia is from Ben Jonson’s The Forest.
John F.M.Dovaston was the first to point out in 1815 that song to Celia
was constructed from passages in the prose epistles of Philostratus. Ben Jonson is indebted to him for the
bantering tone and the ingenious conceit.
But he has so skilfully transformed the borrowing that the poem appear
original and, to use the words of George Parfit, thoroughly English in Diction,
syntax and rhythm. W.M.Evans observes
that the happy marriage of words and music is responsible for its excellence.
The first eight lines express how the
poet esteems the kiss of Celia superior to wine and Jove’s nectar. The next eight lines suggest that she can
influence and improve upon Nature; for she makes the garland fresh and lends
her fragrance to it, which is more pleasant and lasting than its own sweet
smell. This conceit smacks of the
metaphysical concept of unified sensibility.
The poem, thus extols the unique and and almost divine trait of Celia.
The poem may be divided into two
eight-lined stanzas with the rhyme scheme abcb abcb, each line consisting of
eight syllables. It is marked by
classical poise, elegance, subdued emotion and an urban tone.
Care-charmer Sleep is a
sonnet in Delia. Like Sidney, Daniel
addresses sleep. In the first quatrain,
he describes sleep as a care-charmer, the brother of death and son of dark
night. He requests sleep to relieve him
of the agony caused by his unfulfilled love.
I the second quatrain he says that the waking hours of the day will make
him mourn his misfortune. In the third
quatrain he asks dream not to visit him during the night, unfolding the painful
desires of the day. In the couplet he
expresses his wish not to wake up from his sleep lest he be tormented by the
disdain of the mistress.
Lever praises Daniel for the formal perfection
achieved by him in his sonnet structure—a perfection unmatched in the work of
any of his contemporaries except Shakespeare—and for the subtle variations of
metre in consonance with the implication of these traits. Daniel achieves his effect with monosyllabic
words. Long vowel and diphthongs are
used to produce a slow movement in consonance with the heaviness of his
heart. The sonnet consists of three
quatrains with a final couplet, having the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg.
ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD by THOMAS GRAY
Thomas Gray was born in London in 1716.Gray occupies a distinctive place among the transitional poets of England during the 18 century.He stands like a giant between 'the ages of classicism and romanticism'. His thin volumes of poems forge a link between the two ages.
Gray's elegy differs from the elegies written by other poets.He does not mourn the death of a friend but the death of poor people in general.The elegy has 'anonymity'as its main appeal.It is not artificial but sincere in its expression.
Elegy written in a country churchyard is the most popular work of Gray.Dr.Johnson said the poem "abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind,and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo".William Hazlitt considers the elegy as one of the most classical productions that has never been penned "by a refined and thoughtful mind, moralizing on human life".
In the opening stanzas Gray builds up the suitable atmosphere for the poem.The poet is all alone in the churchyard.It is late evening.Darkness engulfs the whole place.The poet gives us a visual picture of the churchyard as he sees it.There are elm and yew trees in the churchyard and the 'rude forefathers of the hamlet'lie buried under the shade of the trees.The description of the late evening and the loneliness of the poet prepare us for the melancholy reflections that follow.
The poet describes the joys of the poor villagers in visual images,the domestic scene with the busy housewife and clustering children and the farm scene with the sickle and the furrow.The villagers have put over the graves simple tombstones to honour the dead in their own way.The "frail monuments"of the poor can in no way compare with the costly monuments of the rich.The costly monuments are of no use over the dead.Once the life is gone,nothing in the world can bring it back.See the poet's lines:
Can storied urn or animated bust
Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust
Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?
Then the poet proceeds to reflect on the emptiness of earthly life.Nobody can escape death.Death lays his icy arms on everybody.Birth,power,beauty and wealth will have to submit to death.
The poet is saddened at the thought that the talents gifted rustics did not flower owing to their poverty and lack of education.Many of them would have become poets,patriots and administrators had they been given opportunities.But he feels in a way consoled.The poor have not performed great achevements but they have committed no crimes.
Gray appends to his "Elegy" an epitaph. Prof.Bateson and Prof.Odell Shepherd consider the epitaph as a serious flaw in this great poem.They believe that the epitaph should have been written as a separate poem.
Muiopotmos
or The Fate of the Butterfly /Edmund Spenser/poetry
The Fate of the Butterflie is a
mock-heroic poem or epyllion of 440 lines.
Spenser used allegory, mythology, fable,and symbol as an indirect means
of expressing his thoughts and feelings in order to avoid a brush with
authorities and aristocrats. His Mother Hubberd’s Tale embodies a
political satire in the guise of the fable of The Fox and the Ape.
Muiopotmos narrates the fable of the
fight between the Butterfly Clarion and the Spider Archanol. It is supposed to allude to the animosity
between Essex and Raliegh or between Sidney and Oxford. The first stanza of the prescribed
piece portrays the butterfly as being endowed with a delicate aesthetic
sensitivity. He tastes every flower and
every herb in the garden without upsetting their order or disfiguring
them.
The second stanza shows the butterfly
as an Epicurean with a refined sensibility.
He seems to believe in the dictum that variety is the spice of
life. Spenser’s humour comes out in the
aphoristic utterance; for all change is
sweete.
The main characteristics of Milton's poetry are the following:
SUBLIMITY,
SENSE OF BEAUTY,
STATELINESS OF MANNER,
MILTON'S HIGH SERIOUSNESS,
A GREAT POETIC ARTIST,
MILTON'S SUPERB IMAGINATION,
MILTON'S SUGGESTIVE POWER,
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ELEMENT,
PURITANISM,
CLASSICISM,
MILTON'S VERSIFICATION, and,
STYLE AND DICTION.
SUBLIMITY
Sublimity is the supreme quality of Milton's poetry. His poetry elevates and uplifts us. Milton lived a life of purity and his life bears the stamp of the nobility of his character. Milton's subject is sublime, and he could never come down to the cheap love poetry. Not lovers and lasses but God, Satan, Adam, Eve and Christ are the characters that Milton has introduced in his poetry. In the "Nativity Ode" the subject is Christ who brought about religious regeneration in Europe. In "Comus", Milton presents sublime thoughts about virtue. 'Paradise Regained' is an expression of the sublime thoughts that Milton had about God and Religion.
SENSE OF BEAUTY
The chief characteristics of Milton's poetry is his profound love of beauty in its various forms. He is deeply sensitive to the beauties of external nature. He shows the beauty of the countryside in 'L' Allegro'. In 'Il Penseroso' he presents many landscapes of beauty for our delight. In 'Paradise Lost' his sense of beauty is supreme. In Book Four, he gives a glowing description of the beauty of Adam and Eve.
STATELINESS OF MANNER
With this sense of beauty is combined a stateliness of manner which gives a high dignity to Milton's poetry. English poetry between the time of Shakespeare and Milton had many qualities. But the quality of stateliness is imparted to it by the poetry of Milton. Milton is always majestic. The subjects he chooses are stately and the treatment too is stately. His problems are of external interest and his genius can find full scope in dealing with grand themes; the problems of man, the redemption of humanity by Christ, and of the way of God to Man.
MILTON'S HIGH SERIOUSNESS
High seriousness marks both Milton's character and poetry. There is a lack of humour in Milton's writing. His poetry never bothers about a big audience of admiring readers. His desire is to have "fit audience though few."
A GREAT POETIC ARTIST
Milton is convinced that the vocation of the poet is lofty and to keep true to that vocation he writes poetry of great sublimity. The artistic workmanship of the poet comes out everywhere.
MILTON'S SUPERB IMAGINATION
Only, a man of Milton's imagination could have shaped the Paradise Lost. The theme of the epic is vast. The poet creates a world of heaven and hell which could only have been possible with the superb imagination that he has. He has an imagination that can soar above time and space, and be at home in infinity. MILTON'S SUGGESTIVE POWER
Milton's suggestive power is the most striking characteristic of his poetry. The effect of his poetry is produced, not by what it expresses, but by what it suggests. We often hear of the magical influence of poetry. This expression is most appropriate when applied to the writing of Milton.
The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia INTRODUCTION and CRITICISM
The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, also known simply as the Arcadia, is a pastoral romance written by Sir Philip Sidney towards the end of the 16th century. It has an important place in the history of English literature as it is the first pastoral romance in English just as Spenser's The Shepherd's Calendar is the first verse pastoral romance. Arcadia includes a number of lyrics and eclogues after the classical style though it is written mainly in prose.
ARCADIA is the name of a mountainous district in the Peloponese, the domain of Pan, the god of shepherds. The poem was written solely for the amusement of Sydney's sister, the Countess of Pembroke. There was no intention of making money or literary fame from this creation. Sydney started writing ARCADIA in 1580. Not only did he not publish it but he also expressed his wish to destroy it while on his deathbed. However it was published in 1586 posthumously, and it brought him great fame.
Everything in ARCADIA is on the ideal plane. Both the story and setting are far removed from reality. David Daiches remarks, "Ideal love, ideal friendship, and the ideal ruler are, directly and indirectly, discussed, suggested and embodied." According to Daiches the style of Arcadia is "highly conceited, full of elaborate analogies, balanced parenthetical asides, pathetic fallacies, symmetrically answering clauses, and other devices of an immature prose entering suddenly into the world of conscious literary device." One of Sidney's constant devices is to take a word and toss it till its meaning is fully extracted with all its aesthetic beauty. Sidney's reference to the cool wine which seems "to laugh for joy" as it nears a lady's lips is an example of the pathetic fallacy. There are other examples like the water drops that slip down the bodies of dainty seem to weep for sorrow. When the princesses put on their clothes, the clothes are described as 'gold'.
Hegemony (from Greek hegemon, 'chief', 'leader', or 'ruler'), in sociology, political science and international relations, is generally used to describe dominance or control rather than leadership. Thus 'hegemonism' describes the policies of states which control or bully those within their sphere of influence.
'Hegemonic control' refers to a system of ethnic domination in which the political elite controls subordinated ethnic community in such a way that it is incapable of effective revolt. 'Hegemonic party' refers to a political party which is the only effective party in control of a particular society. The widespread popularity of the concept of hegemony in the 1970s and 1980s derived from the western Marxist rehabilitation of the PRISON NOTEBOOKS of the Italian Communist leader Antonio Gramsci, who died at the hands of Mussolini's Fascists. Drawing upon the work of Machiavelli and the elite theorist Pareto, Gramsci used the concept of hegemony to describe the way in which he believed the bourgeoisie established and maintains its control even in a democratic system in which workers and peasants might make up an electoral majority. The dominance of the bourgeoisie was not based upon their control of the coercive power of the state, but rather rested upon their ability to exercise moral and political leadership, and to win consent for their vision of what was possible and worthwhile.
Gramsci
In Gramsci's thought, each successful political system requires the creation of an 'historic bloc', unified around an 'hegemonic project', in which the dominant class builds alliances beyond itself, and wins consent for its institutions and ideas. The appeal of this idea for western Marxists was two fold; it helped account for the failure of revolutionary Marxism in western Europe, and it suggested that intellectuals played a key role in building hegemony for a historical bloc. By implication the role of western Marxist intellectuals was to create a 'counter-hegemonic project', that is, an alternative form of political and moral leadership.
SONNET HUNDRED AND FIFTY FOUR The little Love-god lying once asleep, Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand, Whilst many nymphs that vowed chaste life to keep, Came tripping by, but in her maiden hand, The fairest votary took up that fire, Which many legions of true hearts had warmed, And so the general of hot desire, Was sleeping by a virgin hand disarmed. This brand she quenched in a cool well by, Which from Love's fire took heat perpetual, Growing a bath and healthful remedy, For men discased, but I my mistress' thrall, Came there for cure and this by that I prove, Love's fire heats water, water cools not love.
SONNET HUNDRED AND FIFTY FOUR Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep, A maid of Dian's this advantage found, And his love-kindling fire did quickly steep In a cold valley-fountain of that ground: Which borrowed from this holy fire of Love, A dateless lively heat still to endure, And grew a seeting bath which yet men prove, Against strange maladies a sovereign cure: But at my mistress' eye Love's brand new-fired, The boy for trial needs would touch my breast, I sick withal the help of bath desired, And thither hied a sad distempered guest. But found no cure, the bath for my help lies, Where Cupid got new fire; my mistress' eyes.
SONNET HUNDRED AND FIFTY TWO In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn, But thou art twice forsworn to me love swearing, In act thy bed-vow broke and new faith torn, In vowing new hate after new love bearing: But why of two oaths' breach do I accuse thee, When I break twenty? I am perjured most, For all my vows are oaths but to misuse thee: And all my honest faith in thee is lost. For I have sworn deep oaths of thy deep kindness: Oaths of thy love, thy truth, thy constancy, And to enlighten thee gave eyes to blindness, Or made them swear against the thing they see. For I have sworn thee fair: more perjured I, To swear against the truth so foul a be.
SONNET HUNDRED AND FIFTY ONE Love is too young to know what conscience is, Yet who knows not conscience is born of love? Then gentle cheater urge not my amiss, Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove. For thou betraying me, I do betray My nobler part to my gross body's treason, My soul doth tell my body that he may, Triumph in love, flesh stays no farther reason, But rising at thy name doth point out thee, As his triumphant prize, proud of this pride, He is contented thy poor drudge to be, To stand in thy affairs, fall by thy side. No want of conscience hold it that I call, Her love, for whose dear love I rise and fall.
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