John Dryden (1631-1700)
Marriage a-la-Mode
1Why should a foolish marriage vow,
2 Which long ago was made,
3Oblige us to each other now
4 When passion is decay'd?
5We lov'd, and we lov'd, as long as we could,
6 Till our love was lov'd out in us both:
7But our marriage is dead, when the pleasure is fled:
8 'Twas pleasure first made it an oath.
9If I have pleasures for a friend,
10 And farther love in store,
11What wrong has he whose joys did end,
12 And who could give no more?
13'Tis a madness that he should be jealous of me,
14 Or that I should bar him of another:
15For all we can gain is to give our selves pain,
16 When neither can hinder the other.
Notes
1] The poem was set to music by Robert Smith, and was first published with the original music in Choice Songs and Ayres for One Voyce, 1673.
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: John Dryden, Marriage à-la-Mode (1673).
First publication date:
1672
Publication date note: New Court Songs and Poems (1672)
RPO poem editor: G. G. Falle
RP edition: 3RP 2.58.
Recent editing: 4:2002/3/21
Rhyme: ababcdcd
Other poems by John Dryden
