The poem "Love and Life" by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647-1680) consists of three five-line stanzas. The metrical pattern of all three stanzas is:
- Line 1: Iambic tetrameter; A rhyme
- Line 2: Iambic trimeter; B rhyme
- Line 3: Iambic tetrameter; A rhyme
- Line 4: Iambic tetrameter; A rhyme
- Line 5: Iambic trimeter; B rhyme
In other words, the iambic tetrameter lines (1, 3, and 4) rhyme with each other, as do the trimeter lines.
It is written...
The poem "Love and Life" by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647-1680) consists of three five-line stanzas. The metrical pattern of all three stanzas is:
- Line 1: Iambic tetrameter; A rhyme
- Line 2: Iambic trimeter; B rhyme
- Line 3: Iambic tetrameter; A rhyme
- Line 4: Iambic tetrameter; A rhyme
- Line 5: Iambic trimeter; B rhyme
In other words, the iambic tetrameter lines (1, 3, and 4) rhyme with each other, as do the trimeter lines.
It is written in the first person, with a male narrator directly addressing a female beloved named Phyllis.
Thematically, it is a "carpe diem" poem. It argues that time is constantly moving forward, with the past disappearing into memory, the present fleeting and the future unknown. Thus Phyllis should not insist on constancy or wedding vows, but instead yield to his overtures in the present, because the present is all one can have; the poem thus concludes:
If I, by miracle, can be
This live-long minute true to thee,
'Tis all that Heav'n allows.
No comments:
Post a Comment