Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)
A Dialogue between the Soul and the Body
SOUL
1O who shall, from this dungeon, raise
2A soul enslav'd so many ways?
3With bolts of bones, that fetter'd stands
4In feet, and manacled in hands;
5Here blinded with an eye, and there
6Deaf with the drumming of an ear;
7A soul hung up, as 'twere, in chains
8Of nerves, and arteries, and veins;
9Tortur'd, besides each other part,
10In a vain head, and double heart.
BODY
11O who shall me deliver whole
12From bonds of this tyrannic soul?
13Which, stretch'd upright, impales me so
14That mine own precipice I go;
15And warms and moves this needless frame,
16(A fever could but do the same)
17And, wanting where its spite to try,
18Has made me live to let me die.
19A body that could never rest,
20Since this ill spirit it possest.
SOUL
21What magic could me thus confine
22Within another's grief to pine?
23Where whatsoever it complain,
24I feel, that cannot feel, the pain;
25And all my care itself employs;
26That to preserve which me destroys;
27Constrain'd not only to endure
28Diseases, but, what's worse, the cure;
29And ready oft the port to gain,
30Am shipwreck'd into health again.
BODY
31But physic yet could never reach
32The maladies thou me dost teach;
33Whom first the cramp of hope does tear,
34And then the palsy shakes of fear;
35The pestilence of love does heat,
36Or hatred's hidden ulcer eat;
37Joy's cheerful madness does perplex,
38Or sorrow's other madness vex;
39Which knowledge forces me to know,
40And memory will not forego.
41What but a soul could have the wit
42To build me up for sin so fit?
43So architects do square and hew
44Green trees that in the forest grew.
Notes
15] needless: needing nothing, i.e., not needing the soul.
24] that cannot feel: i.e., the soul not having senses.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: Andrew Marvell, Miscellaneous Poems, ed. Mary Marvell (1681). Facs. edn.: Scolar Press, 1969. PR 3546 A1 1681A ROBA.
First publication date:
1681
RPO poem editor: N. J. Endicott
RP edition: 3RP 1.354-55.
Recent editing: 4:2002/2/23
Form: Short Couplets
Other poems by Andrew Marvell
