Analysis of PARADOX. That it is best for a Young Maid to marry an Old Man
Henry King 1592 (Worminghall, Buckinghamshire) – 1669 (Chichester)
Fair one, why cannot you an old man love?
He may as useful, and more constant prove.
Experience shews you that maturer years
Are a security against those fears
Youth will expose you to; whose wild desire
As it is hot, so 'tis as rash as fire.
Mark how the blaze extinct in ashes lies,
Leaving no brand nor embers when it dies
Which might the flame renew: thus soon consumes
Youths wandring heat, and vanishes in fumes.
When ages riper love unapt to stray
Through loose and giddy change of objects, may
In your warm bosom like a cynder lie,
Quickned and kindled by your sparkling eie.
Tis not deni'd, there are extremes in both
Which may the fancie move to like or loath:
Yet of the two you better shall endure
To marry with the Cramp then Calenture.
Who would in wisdom choose the Torrid Zone
Therein to settle a Plantation?
Merchants can tell you, those hot Climes were made
But at the longest for a three years trade:
And though the Indies cast the sweeter smell,
Yet health and plenty do more Northward dwell;
For where the raging Sun-beams burn the earth,
Her scorched mantle withers into dearth;
Yet when that drought becomes the Harvests curse,
Snow doth the tender Corn most kindly nurse:
Why now then wooe you not some snowy head
To take you in meer pitty to his bed?
I doubt the harder task were to perswade
Him to love you: for if what I have said
In Virgins as in Vegetals holds true,
Hee'l prove the better Nurse to cherish you.
Some men we know renown'd for wisdom grown
By old records and antique Medalls shown;
Why ought not women then be held most wise
Who can produce living antiquities?
Besides if care of that main happiness
Your sex triumphs in, doth your thoughts possess,
I mean your beauty from decay to keep;
No wash nor mask is like an old mans sleep.
Young wives need never to be Sun-burnt fear,
Who their old husbands for Umbrellaes wear:
How russet looks an Orchard on the hill
To one that's water'd by some neighb'ring Drill?
Are not the floated Medowes ever seen
To flourish soonest, and hold longest green?
You may be sure no moist'ning lacks that Bride,
Who lies with Winter thawing by her side.
She should be fruitful too as fields that joyne
Unto the melting waste of Appenine.
Whil'st the cold morning-drops bedew the Rose,
It doth nor leaf, nor smell, nor colour lose;
Then doubt not Sweet! Age hath supplies of wet
To keep You like that flowr in water set.
Dripping Catarrhs and Fontinells are things
Will make You think You grew betwixt two Springs.
And should You not think so, You scarce allow
The force or Merit of Your Marriage-Vow;
Where Maids a new Creed learn, & must from thence
Believe against their own or others sence.
Else Love will nothing differ from neglect,
Which turns not to a vertue each defect.
Ile say no more but this; you women make
Your Childrens reck'ning by the Almanake.
I like it well, so you contented are,
To choose their Fathers by that Kalendar.
Turn then old Erra Pater, and there see
According to lifes posture and degree,
What age or what complexion is most fit
To make an English Maid happy by it;
And You shall find, if You will choose a man,
Set justly for Your own Meridian,
Though You perhaps let One and Twenty woo,
Your elevation is for Fifty Two.
Scheme | Text too long |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011111 1111001101 010011111 1001000111 11011111010 11111111110 1101010101 1011110111 1101011101 111010001 11011111 1101011101 011101011 101011101 1101110101 110111111 1101110101 11010111 1101010101 01110010 1011111101 1101010111 0101010101 1101011101 1101011101 011010011 1111010101 1101011101 1111111101 1110101111 110101011 1111111111 01010111 11101011101 1111011101 110100111 1111011111 1101100100 0111111100 1110011101 1111010111 1111111111 1111011111 11110111 1101110101 111101111 110101101 1101001101 1111111111 1111010101 1111011111 10010111 101101101 111111111 1111110111 1111110101 1010111 1111110111 0111111101 0111011101 110111111 0101111101 1111010101 111101110 1111111101 11011101 1111110101 11110111 1111010011 0101110001 1111010111 1111011011 0111111101 1101110100 1101110101 101011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 3,234 |
Words | 596 |
Sentences | 24 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 76 |
Lines Amount | 76 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 2,549 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 594 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 3:01 min read
- 94 Views
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"PARADOX. That it is best for a Young Maid to marry an Old Man" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17649/paradox.-that-it-is-best-for-a-young-maid-to-marry-an-old-man>.
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