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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE HEART-BREAKING by ABRAHAM COWLEY

Poet Analysis

First Line: IT GAVE A PITTEOUS GROAN, AND SO IT BROKE
Last Line: MY MONARCH-LOVE INTO A TYRANT-STATE.
Subject(s): LOVE - COMPLAINTS;

1.

IT gave a pittious groan, and so it broke;
In vain it something would have spoke:
The Love within too strong for 't was,
Like Poison put into a Venice-Glasse.

2.

I thought that this some Remedy might prove,
But, oh, the mighty Serpent Love,
Cut by this chance in pieces small,
In all still liv'd, and still it stung in all.

3.

And now (alas) each little broken part
Feels the whole pain of all my Heart:
And every smallest corner still
Lives with the torment which the Whole did kill.

4.

Even so rude Armies when the field they quit,
And into severall Quarters get;
Each Troop does spoile and ruine more,
Then all joyn'd in one body did before.

5.

How many Loves raigne in my bosome now?
How many Loves, yet all of you?
Thus have I chang'd with evill fate
My Monarch-Love into a Tyrant-State.



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