Analysis of Fie, Pleasure, Fie!
George Gascoigne 1535 (Cardington) – 1577
1 Fie pleasure, fie! thou cloyest me with delight,
2 Thou fill'st my mouth with sweetmeats overmuch;
3 I wallow still in joy both day and night:
4 I deem, I dream, I do, I taste, I touch,
5 No thing but all that smells of perfect bliss;
6 Fie pleasure, fie! I cannot like of this.
7 To taste (sometimes) a bait of bitter gall,
8 To drink a draught of so{'u}r ale (some season)
9 To eat brown bread with homely hands in hall,
10 Doth much increase men's appetites, by reason,
11 And makes the sweet more sugar'd that ensues,
12 Since minds of men do still seek after news.
13 The pamper'd horse is seldom seen in breath,
14 Whose manger makes his grace (oftimes) to melt;
15 The crammed fowl comes quickly to his death;
16 Such colds they catch in hottest haps that swelt;
17 And I (much like) in pleasure scawled still,
18 Do fear to starve although I feed my fill.
19 It might suffice that Love hath built his bower
20 Between my lady's lively shining eyes;
21 It were enough that beauty's fading flower
22 Grows ever fresh with her in heavenly wise;
23 It had been well that she were fair of face,
24 And yet not rob all other dames of grace.
25 To muse in mind, how wise, how fair, how good,
26 How brave, how frank, how courteous, and how true
27 My lady is, doth but inflame my blood
28 With humours such as bid my health adieu;
29 Since hap always when it is clomb on high,
30 Doth fall full low, though erst it reach'd the sky.
31 Lo, pleasure, lo! lo thus I lead a life
32 That laughs for joy, and trembleth oft for dread;
33 Thy pangs are such as call for change's knife
34 To cut the twist, or else to stretch the thread,
35 Which holds yfeer the bundle of my bliss:
36 Fie, pleasure, fie! I dare not trust to this.
Scheme | ABABCC DEDEFF GXGAHH IJIJKK XLXLMM NONOCC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101111101 11111111 1101011101 1111111111 1111111011 1101110111 1101011101 110111111110 1111110101 1101110110 0101110101 1111111101 0101110101 110111111 011110111 1111010111 011101011 111111111 11011111110 0111010101 1001111010 11011001001 1111110111 0111110111 1101111111 11111100011 1101110111 111111101 111111111 1111111101 1101111101 111101111 111111111 1101111101 111010111 1101111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,800 |
Words | 346 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 12 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 218 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 74 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:46 min read
- 99 Views
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"Fie, Pleasure, Fie!" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/15007/fie%2C-pleasure%2C-fie%21>.
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