Analysis of To A Lady That Desired Me I Would Beare My Part With Her In A Song Madam A. L.
Richard Lovelace 1618 – 1657
This is the prittiest motion:
Madam, th' alarums of a drumme
That cals your lord, set to your cries,
To mine are sacred symphonies.
What, though 'tis said I have a voice;
I know 'tis but that hollow noise
Which (as it through my pipe doth speed)
Bitterns do carol through a reed;
In the same key with monkeys jiggs,
Or dirges of proscribed piggs,
Or the soft Serenades above
In calme of night, when cats make love.
Was ever such a consort seen!
Fourscore and fourteen with forteen?
Yet sooner they'l agree, one paire,
Then we in our spring-winter aire;
They may imbrace, sigh, kiss, the rest:
Our breath knows nought but east and west.
Thus have I heard to childrens cries
The faire nurse still such lullabies,
That, well all sayd (for what there lay),
The pleasure did the sorrow pay.
Sure ther's another way to save
Your phansie, madam; that's to have
('Tis but a petitioning kinde fate)
The organs sent to Bilingsgate,
Where they to that soft murm'ring quire
Shall teach you all you can admire!
Or do but heare, how love-bang Kate
In pantry darke for freage of mate,
With edge of steele the square wood shapes,
And DIDO to it chaunts or scrapes.
The merry Phaeton oth' carre
You'l vow makes a melodious jarre;
Sweeter and sweeter whisleth He
To un-anointed axel-tree;
Such swift notes he and 's wheels do run;
For me, I yeeld him Phaebus son.
Say, faire Comandres, can it be
You should ordaine a mutinie?
For where I howle, all accents fall,
As kings harangues, to one and all.
Ulisses art is now withstood:
You ravish both with sweet and good;
Saint Syren, sing, for I dare heare,
But when I ope', oh, stop your eare.
Far lesse be't aemulation
To passe me, or in trill or tone,
Like the thin throat of Philomel,
And the smart lute who should excell,
As if her soft cords should begin,
And strive for sweetnes with the pin.
Yet can I musick too; but such
As is beyond all voice or touch;
My minde can in faire order chime,
Whilst my true heart still beats the time;
My soule['s] so full of harmonie,
That it with all parts can agree;
If you winde up to the highest fret,
It shall descend an eight from it,
And when you shall vouchsafe to fall,
Sixteene above you it shall call,
And yet, so dis-assenting one,
They both shall meet in unison.
Come then, bright cherubin, begin!
My loudest musick is within.
Take all notes with your skillfull eyes;
Hearke, if mine do not sympathise!
Sound all my thoughts, and see exprest
The tablature of my large brest;
Then you'l admit, that I too can
Musick above dead sounds of man;
Such as alone doth blesse the spheres,
Not to be reacht with humane eares.
Scheme | ABCX XXDDCCEE XAFFGGCCHH XXIDFFIIJJFFKFAAKALL MMFF AXHHNN OOBBKFXXLLAA NNCCDGPPXC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110110 10111101 11111111 11110100 11111101 11111101 11111111 1110101 00111101 111011 101101 01111111 11010011 101111 110110111 110101101 1111101 101111101 11111101 0111110 11111111 01010101 11010111 1110111 110010011 010111 1111111 11111101 11111111 01011111 11110111 01011111 010111 1111001001 1001011 11010101 111101111 1111111 111111 11101 111101101 11011101 111101 1111101 1111111 11111111 11111 11110111 101111 0011111 11011101 0111101 11110111 11011111 11101101 11111101 11111100 11111101 111110101 11011111 0111111 1011111 011111 11110100 111101 11010101 1111111 111111 1111011 01001111 111011111 10011111 11011101 11111011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,547 |
Words | 481 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 8, 10, 20, 4, 6, 12, 10 |
Lines Amount | 74 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 251 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 60 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:27 min read
- 26 Views
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"To A Lady That Desired Me I Would Beare My Part With Her In A Song Madam A. L." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/30244/to-a-lady-that-desired-me-i-would-beare-my-part-with-her-in-a-song-madam-a.-l.>.
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