Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ODE, by JOHN WOLCOTT Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: That I have often been in love, deep love Last Line: Who hate variety, and sigh for chains. Alternate Author Name(s): Pindar, Peter; Wolcot, John Subject(s): Love; Togetherness | ||||||||
THAT I have often been in love, deep love, A hundred doleful ditties plainly prove. By marriage never have I been disjointed, For matrimony deals prodigious blows: And yet for this same stormy state, God knows, I've groanedand, thank my stars, been disappointed. With Love's dear passion will I never war: Let ev'ry man for ever be in love, E'en if he beats, in age, old Parr: 'Tis for his chilly veins a good warm glove; It bids the blood with brisker motion start, Thawing Time's icicles around his heart. Wedlock's a saucy, sad, familiar state, Where folks are very apt to scold and hate: Love keeps a modest distance, is divine, Obliging, and says ev'rything that's fine. Love writes sweet sonnets, deals in tender matter: Marriage, in epigram so keen and satire: Love seeketh always to oblige the fair, Full of kind wishes and exalted hope: Marriage desires to see her in the air, Suspended at the bottom of a rope. Love wishes, in the vale or on the down, To give his dear, dear idol a green gown: Marriage, the brute, so snappish and ill-bred, Can kick his sighing turtle out of bed; Turns bluffly from the charms that taste adores, Then pulls his night-cap o'er his eyes, and snores. Wedlock at first, indeed, is vastly pleasant, A very showy bird, a fine cock-pheasant: By time, it changeth to a diff'rent fowl, Sometimes a cuckoo, oft'ner a horn-owl. Wedlock's a lock, however large and thick, Which ev'ry rascal has a key to pick. O love! for heav'n's sake, never leave my heart: No! thou and I will never, never part: Go, Wedlock, to the men of leaden brains, Who hate variety, and sigh for chains. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A WOMAN WITH FLAXEN HAIR IN NORFOLK HEARD by ROBERT KELLY YESTERDAY FROM MY FEVER by GALWAY KINNELL IF YOU COULD COME SOFTLY by AUDRE LORDE MISGIVINGS by WILLIAM MATTHEWS NOW THAT YOU'RE HERE by JOHN FREDERICK NIMS SILENT IN THE MOONLIGHT by ROBERT BLY THE RAZOR-SELLER by JOHN WOLCOTT TO CHLOE; AN APOLOGY FOR GOING INTO THE COUNTRY by JOHN WOLCOTT |
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