Analysis of On the Friendship Betwixt Two Ladies

Edmund Waller 1606 (Coleshill) – 1687



Tell me, lovely, loving pair!
Why so kind, and so severe?
Why so careless of our care,
Only to yourselves so dear?

By this cunning change of hearts,
You the power of love control;
While the boy's eluded darts
Can arrive at neither soul.

For in vain to either breast
Still beguiled love does come,
Where he finds a foreign guest,
Neither of your hearts at home.

Debtors thus with like design,
When they never mean to pay,
That they may the law decline,
To some friend make all away.

Not the silver doves that fly,
Yoked in Cytherea's car;
Not the wings that lift so high,
And convey her son so far;

Are so lovely, sweet, and fair,
Or do more ennoble love;
Are so choicely matched a pair,
Or with more consent do move.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EXEX FGFG HIHI AXAX
Poetic Form Quatrain  (67%)
Metre 1110101 1110101 11101101 1010111 1110111 10101101 1010101 1011101 1011101 101111 1110101 1011111 1011101 1110111 1110101 1111101 1010111 1011 1011111 0010111 1110101 1110101 111101 1110111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 706
Words 138
Sentences 8
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 92
Words per stanza (avg) 23
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 20, 2023

42 sec read
56

Edmund Waller

Edmund Waller, FRS was an English poet and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1624 and 1679. more…

All Edmund Waller poems | Edmund Waller Books

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