A Dialogue between the Soul & the Body: IV

by Andrew Marvell *

the BODY, bewildered & exhausted, recapitulates:

But physic yet could never reach
The maladies thou me dost teach;
Whom first the cramp of hope does tear,
And then the palsy shakes of fear;
The pestilence of love does heat,
Or hatred’s hidden ulcer eat;
Joy’s cheerful madness does perplex,
Or sorrow’s other madness vex;
Which knowledge forces me to know,
And memory will not forego.
What but a soul could have the wit
To build me up for sin so fit?
So architects do square and hew
Green trees that in the forest grew.

their DEBATE RECYCLES, with no victory, no defeat, no compromise:

P&P: A Dialogue Between the Soul & the Body IV

J0022