Can life be a blessing
John Dryden 1631 (Aldwincle) – 1631 (London)
Can life be a blessing,
Or worth the possessing,
Can life be a blessing if love were away?
Ah no! though our love all night keep us waking,
And though he torment us with cares all the day,
Yet he sweetens, he sweetens our pains in the taking,
There's an hour at the last, there's an hour to repay.
In ev'ry possessing,
The ravishing blessing,
In ev'ry possessing the fruit of our pain,
Poor lovers forget long ages of anguish,
Whate'er they have suffer'd and done to obtain;
'Tis a pleasure, a pleasure to sigh and to languish,
When we hope, when we hope to be happy again.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 15, 2023
- 34 sec read
- 221 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AABABAB AACDCDX |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 603 |
Words | 110 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 7 |
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"Can life be a blessing" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/22651/can-life-be-a-blessing>.
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