A Song On A Sigh



O tell mee, tell, thou god of wynde,
In all thy cavernes canst thou finde
A vapor, fume, a gale or blast
Like to a sigh which love doth cast?
Can any whirlwynde in thy vault
Plough upp earth's breast with like assault?
 Goe wynde and blowe thou where thou please,
 Yea breathles leave mee to my ease.

If thou be wynde, O then refrayne
From wracking whiles I thus complayne:
If thou be wynde then light thou art,
Yet O! how heavy is my hart!
If thou be wynde then purge thy way,
Lett cares that clogge thy force obey.
 Goe wynde and blow thou where thou please,
 Yea breathles leave mee to my ease.

Those blasts of sighing raised are
By influence of my bright starre;
Their Æolus from whom they came
Is love that straynes to blow his flame,
The powerfull sway of whose behest
Makes hearth and bellowes of my breast.
 Goe wynde and blowe then where thou please,
 Yea breathles leave mee to my ease.

Know 'tis a wynde that longs to blowe
Upon my Saint wherere shee goe,
And stealing through her fanne it beares
Soft errands to her lippes and eares,
And then perhapps a passage makes
Downe to her heart when breath shee takes.
 Goe wynde and blowe then where thou please,
 Yea breathles leave mee to my ease.

Yes, gentle gale, trye that againe,
O doe not passe from mee in vayne,
Goe mingle with her soule divine
Ingendring spiritts like to mine:
Yea take my soule along with thee
To worke a stronger sympathie:
 Goe wynde and blowe thou where thou please,
 Yea breathles leave mee to my ease.

My soule, before my grosser part,
Thus to her heaven should departe,
And where the body cannott lye
On wings of wynde my soule shall flye:
If not one soule our bodies joyne,
One body shall our soules confine,
 Goe wynde and blowe thou where thou please,
 Yea breathles leave mee to my ease.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:40 min read
51

Quick analysis:

Scheme aaaaaaBB ccaaddbB eeffaaBB ggbbhhBB cccciiBB aajjccBB
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,742
Words 335
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8

William Strode

William Strode (c. 1602 – 1645) was an English poet, Doctor of Divinity and Public Orator of Oxford University, one of the Worthies of Devon of John Prince (d.1723). more…

All William Strode poems | William Strode Books

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