Analysis of Love's Growth
John Donne 1572 (London) – 1631 (London)
I scarce believe my love to be so pure
As I had thought it was,
Because it doth endure
Vicissitude, and season, as the grass ;
Methinks I lied all winter, when I swore
My love was infinite, if spring make it more.
But if this medicine, love, which cures all sorrow
With more, not only be no quintessence,
But mix'd of all stuffs, vexing soul, or sense,
And of the sun his active vigour borrow,
Love’s not so pure, and abstract as they use
To say, which have no mistress but their Muse ;
But as all else, being elemented too,
Love sometimes would contemplate, sometimes do.
And yet no greater, but more eminent,
Love by the spring is grown ;
As in the firmament
Stars by the sun are not enlarged, but shown,
Gentle love deeds, as blossoms on a bough,
From love's awakened root do bud out now.
If, as in water stirr'd more circles be
Produced by one, love such additions take,
Those like so many spheres but one heaven make,
For they are all concentric unto thee ;
And though each spring do add to love new heat,
As princes do in times of action get
New taxes, and remit them not in peace,
No winter shall abate this spring’s increase.
Scheme | AXAXBB CXXCXXDD XEDEFF GHHGXXII |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101111111 111111 011101 100010101 111110111 11110011111 111100111110 1111011010 1111110111 010111011 1111001111 1111110111 11111011 101110011 0111011100 110111 1001 1101110111 1011110101 1101011111 1101011101 0111110101 11110111101 1111010101 0111111111 1101011101 1100011101 1101011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,142 |
Words | 214 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 8, 6, 8 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 219 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 54 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 28, 2023
- 1:05 min read
- 378 Views
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