Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IDEA: 40, by MICHAEL DRAYTON


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IDEA: 40, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: My heart the anvil where my thoughts do beat
Last Line: And turn the wheel with damned ixion.
Variant Title(s): My Smithy


My heart the anvil where my thoughts do beat;
My words the hammers fashioning my desire;
My breast the forge including all the heat;
Love is the fuel which maintains the fire;
My sighs the bellows which the flame increaseth,
Filling mine ears with noise and nightly groaning;
Toiling with pain, my labor never ceaseth,
In grievous passions my woes still bemoaning;
My eyes with tears against the fire striving,
Whose scorching gleed my heart to cinders turneth,
But with these drops the flame again reviving,
Still more and more it to my torment turneth.
With Sisyphus thus do I roll the stone,
And turn the wheel with damned Ixion.






Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


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