(Article is below...)

Song - Sweetest Love, I do Not Go by John Donne

Analysis

"Sweetest Love, I do Not Go" is a poem written by John Donne. This song is basically Donne telling his love that he has to leave for a while, but he won't be gone long and she shouldn't distrust him on where he is about to go.

This poem is made up of five stanzas with eight lines in each. It has the rhyme scheme of ABABCDDC in each stanza. Donne keeps the rhythm in this poem by using both his rhyme and meter structure. Even though his meters aren't all the same, he sticks somewhat with iambic footers (though he does vary it slightly).

Poem

Sweetest Love, I do Not Go
By 

Sweetest love, I do not go,
For weariness of thee,
Nor in hope the world can show
A fitter love for me;
But since that I
At the last must part, 'tis best,
Thus to use myself in jest
By feigned deaths to die.

Yesternight the sun went hence,
And yet is here to-day;
He hath no desire nor sense,
Nor half so short a way;
Then fear not me,
But believe that I shall make
Speedier journeys, since I take
More wings and spurs than he.

O how feeble is man's power,
That if good fortune fall,
Cannot add another hour,
Nor a lost hour recall;
But come bad chance,
And we join to it our strength,
And we teach it art and length,
Itself o'er us to advance.

When thou sigh'st, thou sigh'st not wind,
But sigh'st my soul away;
When thou weep'st, unkindly kind,
My life's blood doth decay.
It cannot be
That thou lovest me as thou say'st,
If in thine my life thou waste,
That art the best of me.

Let not thy divining heart
Forethink me any ill;
Destiny may take thy part,
And may thy fears fulfil.
But think that we
Are but turn'd aside to sleep.
They who one another keep
Alive, ne'er parted be.

Next: A Burnt Ship