Earth

The first two stanzas of the poem are concerned with the earthly and the corporeal. The first stanza depicts two people in an argument, as the speaker is trying to convince the addressee that he should be allowed to love. When the speaker says, "chide my palsy, or my gout," he attempts to distract his critic with a focus on corporeal shortcomings, which he himself knows will not matter in the afterlife. The speaker then goes on to persuade the opponent to pursue any worldly interests and leave him alone. In the second stanza, the speaker uses images of natural disasters – an ironic engagement with the Petrarchan tradition – to argue that his love is harmless. These two stanzas are concerned with the immediate and tangible manifestations of love, which will start to disappear as the speaker dramatizes the lovers' transcendence into sainthood.

Verse/Poetry

In the second half...