SINCE THERES NO HELP

SINCE THERE’S NO HELP, COME
LET US KISS AND PART

MICHAEL DRAYTON (1563-1631)

Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part
Nay, I have done, you get no more of me,
That thus so cleanly I myself can free
Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,
And when we meet any time again,
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain.
Now at the last gasp of loves latest breath,
When, his pulse failing, passion speechless lies
When faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
And innocence is closing up his eyes
Now if thou wouldst, when all have given him over
From death to life thou mightst him yet recover


(In lines 9-12 the abstract idea that love is not quite at an end is made concrete by a series of personifications grouped to create a deathbed scene. Faith and innocence attend like humans at the side of dying love. Unfortunately, they have not the power, as the last line makes clear, of the real person to whom the lines are addressed. Personification is common in poetry as they are in everyday language. )