Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO THE UNKNOWN EROS: BOOK 2: 15. PAIN, by COVENTRY KERSEY DIGHTON PATMORE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: O, pain, love's mystery Last Line: To call thee back. Subject(s): Pain; Suffering; Misery | ||||||||
O, Pain, Love's mystery, Close next of kin To joy and heart's delight, Low Pleasure's opposite, Choice food of sanctity And medicine of sin, Angel, whom even they that will pursue Pleasure with hell's whole gust Find that they must Perversely woo, My lips, thy live coal touching, speak thee true. Thou sear'st my flesh, O Pain, But brand'st for arduous peace my languid brain, And bright'nest my dull view, Till I, for blessing, blessing give again, And my roused spirit is Another fire of bliss, Wherein I learn Feelingly how the pangful, purging fire Shall furiously burn With joy, not only of assured desire, But also present joy Of seeing the life's corruption, stain by stain, Vanish in the clear heat of Love irate, And, fume by fume, the sick alloy Of luxury, sloth and hate Evaporate; Leaving the man, so dark erewhile, The mirror merely of God's smile. Herein, O Pain, abides the praise For which my song I raise; But even the bastard good of intermittent ease How greatly doth it please! With what repose The being from its bright exertion glows, When from thy strenuous storm the senses sweep Into a little harbour deep Of rest; When thou, O Pain, Having devour'd the nerves that thee sustain, Sleep'st, till thy tender food be somewhat grown again; And how the lull With tear-blind love is full! What mockery of a man am I express'd That I should wait for thee To woo! Nor even dare to love, till thou lov'st me. How shameful, too, Is this: That, when thou lov'st, I am at first afraid Of thy fierce kiss, Like a young maid; And only trust thy charms And get my courage in thy throbbing arms. And, when thou partest, what a fickle mind Thou leav'st behind, That, being a little absent from mine eye, It straight forgets thee what thou art, And ofttimes my adulterate heart Dallies with Pleasure, thy pale enemy. O, for the learned spirit without attaint That does not faint, But knows both how to have thee and to lack, And ventures many a spell, Unlawful but for them that love so well, To call thee back. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PARTHENOPHIL AND PARTHENOPHE: MADRIGAL 14 by BARNABE BARNES SONNETS IN SHADOWS: 1 by ARLO BATES IN PRAISE OF PAIN by HEATHER MCHUGH THE SYMPATIZERS by JOSEPHINE MILES LEEK STREET by LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR A LONDON FETE by COVENTRY KERSEY DIGHTON PATMORE |
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