Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Caelica 7

Ok, so I don't love this poem, although I respect its form, elegance, and technique, but I do love HOW MUCH FREAKING CHIASMUS IT USES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Caelica 7
Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke

The World, that all contains, is ever moving,
The Stars within their spheres for ever turned,
Nature (the Queen of Change) to change is loving,
And Form to matter new is still adjourned.

Fortune our fancy-God, to vary liketh,
Place is not bound to things within it placed,
The present time upon time passed striketh,
With Phoebus' wandering course the earth is graced.

The Air still moves, and by its moving cleareth,
the Fire up ascends, and planets feedeth,
The Water passeth on, and all lets weareth,
The Earth stands still, yet change of changes breedeth;

Her plants, which Summer ripes, in Winter fade,
Each creature in unconstant mother lieth,
Man made of earth, and for whom earth is made,
Still dying lives, and living ever dieth;
Only like fate sweet Myra never varies,
Yet in her eyes the doom of all Change carries.

2 comments:

  1. please point it out. I can't remember exactly how it is except line one has A:B and line two has B:A or something.

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  2. Well, there's "place is not bound to things within it placed," which isn't really a proper example, but is chiasmic enough to be pleasing to me. Also "the present time upon time passed" - that's a really good one. And lines three and four in the last stanza each use chiasmus. Not all chiasmus has to have repetition of words this way; it is usually considered to mean repetition of grammatical structure, in the way that is opposite of parallelism, but I think those examples qualify too. Anyway, I love them!

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