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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


LOVE TRIUMPHANT: SONG OF JEALOUSIE by JOHN DRYDEN

Poet Analysis

First Line: WHAT STATE OF LIFE CAN BE SO BLEST
Last Line: THOU TYRANT OF THE MIND!
Subject(s): DEATH; JEALOUSY; LIFE; LOVE; SINGING & SINGERS; TYRANNY & TYRANTS; DEAD, THE; SONGS; DICTATORS;

1

WHAT State of Life can be so blest
As Love, that warms a Lover's Breast?
Two Souls in one, the same desire
To grant the Bliss, and to require!
But if in Heav'n a Hell we find,
'Tis all from thee,
O Jealousie!
Thou Tyrant, Tyrant Jealousie,
Thou Tyrant of the Mind!

2

All other ills, tho sharp they prove,
Serve to refine, and perfect Love:
In absence, or unkind disdain,
Sweet Hope relieves the Lover's pain:
But ah, no Cure but Death we find
To set us free
From Jealousie:
O Jealousie!
Thou Tyrant, Tyrant Jealousie,
Thou Tyrant of the Mind.

3

False in thy Glass all Objects are,
Some set too near, and some too far:
Thou art the Fire of endless Night
The Fire that burns, and gives no Light.
All Torments of the Damn'd we find
In only thee
O Jealousie!
Thou Tyrant, Tyrant Jealousie
Thou Tyrant of the Mind!



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