Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AN ELEGY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Heav'n knows my love to thee, fed on desires
Last Line: And the sweet antidote to sin no more.


HEAV'N knows my love to thee, fed on desires
So hallowed, and unmix'd with vulgar fires,
As are the purest beams shot from the sun
At his full height, and the devotion
Of dying martyrs could not burn more clear,
Nor innocence in her first robes appear
Whiter than our affections; they did show
(Like frost forc'd out of flames, and fire from snow)
So pure, the Phoenix, when she did refine
Her age to youth, borrowed no flames but mine.
But now my day's o'ercast; for I have now
Drawn anger like a tempest o'er the brow
Of my fair mistress; those your glorious eyes,
Whence I was wont to see my day-star rise,
Threat like revengeful meteors, and I feel
My torment and my guilt double my hell.
'Twas a mistake, and might have venial been,
Done to another; but it was made sin,
And justly mortal, too, by troubling thee.
Slight wrongs are treasons done to majesty.
O all ye blest ghosts of deceased loves,
That now live sainted in the Elysian groves,
Mediate for mercy for me! at her shrine
Meet in full quire, and join your prayers with mine.
Conjure her by the merits of your kisses,
By your past sufferings and present blisses;
Conjure her by your mutual hopes and fears,
By all your intermixed sighs and tears,
To plead my pardon. Go to her, and tell
That you will walk the guardian sentinel,
My soul's safe genii, that she need not fear
A mutinous thought or one close rebel there.
But what needs that, when she alone sits there
Sole angel of that orb? In her own sphere
Alone she sits, and can secure it free
From all irregular motions; only she
Can give the balsam that must cure this sore,
And the sweet antidote to sin no more.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net