The Divine Lover

Phineas Fletcher 1582 (Cranbrook) – 1650



I

Me Lord? can’st thou mispend  
 One word, misplace one look on me?  
 Call’st me thy Love, thy Friend?  
   Can this poor soul the object be  
Of these love-glances, those life-kindling eyes?          
What? I the Centre of thy arms embraces?  
   Of all thy labour I the prize?  
   Love never mocks, Truth never lies.  
Oh how I quake: Hope fear, fear hope displaces:  
I would, but cannot hope: such wondrous love amazes.         
 
II

   See, I am black as night,  
 See I am darkness: dark as hell.  
   Lord thou more fair than light;  
 Heav’ns Sun thy Shadow; can Sunns dwell  
With Shades? ’twixt light, and darkness what commerce?         
True: thou art darkness, I thy Light: my ray  
   Thy mists, and hellish foggs shall pierce.  
   With me, black soul, with me converse.  
I make the foul December flowry May,  
Turn thou thy night to me: I’le turn thy night to day.         
 
III

   See Lord, see I am dead:  
 Tomb’d in my self: my self my grave  
   A drudge: so born, so bred:  
 My self even to my self a slave.  
Thou Freedom, Life: can Life, and Liberty         
Love bondage, death? Thy Freedom I: I tyed  
   To loose thy bonds: be bound to me:  
   My Yoke shall ease, my bonds shall free.  
Dead soul, thy Spring of life, my dying side:  
There dye with me to live: to live in thee I dyed.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:09 min read
99

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCDCCDD AEAEFGXFGA AHAHAABBAA
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,305
Words 231
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 10, 10, 10

Phineas Fletcher

Phineas Fletcher was a Scottish-English poet, elder son of Dr Giles Fletcher, and brother of Giles the younger. He was born at Cranbrook, Kent, and was baptized on 8 April 1582. more…

All Phineas Fletcher poems | Phineas Fletcher Books

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