Analysis of The Legacy
Henry King 1592 (Worminghall, Buckinghamshire) – 1669 (Chichester)
My dearest Love! when thou and I must part,
And th' icy hand of death shall seize that heart
Which is all thine; within some spacious will
Ile leave no blanks for Legacies to fill:
Tis my ambition to die one of those
Who but himself hath nothing to dispose.
And since that is already thine, what need
I to re-give it by some newer deed?
Yet take it once again. Free circumstance
Does oft the value of mean things advance:
Who thus repeats what he bequeath'd before,
Proclaims his bounty richer then his store.
But let me not upon my love bestow
What is not worth the giving. I do ow
Somwhat to dust: my bodies pamper'd care
Hungry corruption and the worm will share.
That mouldring relick which in earth must lie
Would prove a gift of horrour to thine eie.
With this cast ragge of my mortalitie
Let all my faults and errours buried be.
And as my sear-cloth rots, so may kind fate
Those worst acts of my life incinerate.
He shall in story fill a glorious room
Whose ashes and whose sins sleep in one Tomb.
If now to my cold hearse thou deign to bring
Some melting sighs as thy last offering,
My peacefull exequies are crown'd. Nor shall
I ask more honour at my Funerall.
Thou wilt more richly balm me with thy tears
Then all the Nard fragrant Arabia bears.
And as the Paphian Queen by her griefs show'r
Brought up her dead Loves Spirit in a flow'r:
So by those precious drops rain'd from thine eies,
Out of my dust, O may some vertue rise!
And like thy better Genius thee attend,
Till thou in my dark Period shalt end.
Lastly, my constant truth let me commend
To him thou choosest next to be thy friend.
For (witness all things good) I would not have
Thy Youth and Beauty married to my grave,
'Twould shew thou didst repent the style of wife
Should'st thou relapse into a single life.
They with preposterous grief the world delude
Who mourn for their lost Mates in solitude;
Since Widdowhood more strongly doth enforce
The much lamented lot of their divorce.
Themselves then of their losses guilty are
Who may, yet will not suffer a repaire.
Those were Barbarian wives that did invent
Weeping to death at th' Husbands Monument,
But in more civil Rites She doth approve
Her first, who ventures on a second Love;
For else it may be thought, if She refrain,
She sped so ill Shee durst not trie again.
Up then my Love, and choose some worthier one
Who may supply my room when I am gone;
So will the stock of our affection thrive
No less in death, then were I still alive.
And in my urne I shall rejoyce, that I
Am both Testatour thus and Legacie.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIJAKLLMMNNOBPPQQCRSSSSTUVVWWXXQFYZ1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 IC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1101110111 011101111111 1111011101 1111110011 1101011111 1101110101 0111010111 1111111101 111101110 1101011101 1101110101 0111010111 1111011101 1111010111 111110101 1001000111 11110111 110111111 1111111 111101101 0111111111 111111010 11010101001 1100111011 1111111111 1101111100 1111111 1111111 1111011111 11011001001 0101110111 11011100011 1111011111 111111111 0111010101 1101110011 1011011101 111111111 1101111111 1101010111 1111010111 11101010101 11010010101 111111010 11110101 0101011101 0111110101 111111001 10010011101 101111110100 1011011101 0111010101 1111111101 1111111101 11110111001 1101111111 11011100101 1101101101 001111111 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,549 |
Words | 481 |
Sentences | 24 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 60 |
Lines Amount | 60 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 2,000 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 479 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:26 min read
- 45 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"The Legacy" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17676/the-legacy>.
Discuss this Henry King poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In