Soul <br />O Who shall, from this Dungeon, raise <br />A Soul inslav'd so many wayes? <br />With bolts of Bones, that fetter'd stands <br />In Feet ; and manacled in Hands. <br />Here blinded with an Eye ; and there <br />Deaf with the drumming of an Ear. <br />A Soul hung up, as 'twere, in Chains <br />Of Nerves, and Arteries, and Veins. <br />Tortur'd, besides each other part,1 <br />In a vain Head, and double Heart. <br /> <br />Body <br />O who shall me deliver whole, <br />From bonds of this Tyrannic Soul? <br />Which, stretcht upright, impales me so, <br />That mine own Precipice I go; <br />And warms and moves this needless Frame: <br />(A Fever could but do the same.) <br />And, wanting where its spight to try, <br />Has made me live to let me dye. <br />A Body that could never rest, <br />Since this ill Spirit it possest. <br /> <br />Soul <br />What Magic could me thus confine <br />Within anothers Grief to pine? <br />Where whatsoever it complain, <br />I feel, that cannot feel, the pain. <br />And all my Care its self employes, <br />That to preserve, which me destroys: <br />Constrain'd not only to indure <br />Diseases, but, whats worse, the Cure: <br />And ready oft the Port to gain, <br />Am Shipwrackt into Health again. <br /> <br />Body <br />But Physick yet could never reach <br />The Maladies Thou me dost teach; <br />Whom first the Cramp of Hope does Tear: <br />And then the Palsie Shakes of Fear. <br />The Pestilence of Love does heat : <br />Or Hatred's hidden Ulcer eat. <br />Joy's chearful Madness does perplex: <br />Or Sorrow's other Madness vex. <br />Which Knowledge forces me to know; <br />And Memory will not foregoe. <br />What but a Soul could have the wit <br />To build me up for Sin so fit? <br />So Architects do square and hew, <br />Green Trees that in the Forest grew.<br /><br />Andrew Marvell<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-dialogue-between-the-soul-and-body/
