“Elegy V: His Picture” Introduction

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“Elegy V: His Picture” Summary

“Elegy V: His Picture” Themes

• 

  The Persistence of Love

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Elegy V: His Picture”

• Lines 1-4

  Here take my picture; though I bid farewell
  Thine, in my heart, where my soul dwells, shall dwell.
  'Tis like me now, but I dead, 'twill be more
  When we are shadows both, than 'twas before.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-10

  When weather-beaten I come back, my hand
  Perhaps with rude oars torn, or sun beams tann'd,
  My face and breast of haircloth, and my head
  With care's rash sudden storms being o'erspread,
  My body'a sack of bones, broken within,
  And powder's blue stains scatter'd on my skin;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 11-16

  If rival fools tax thee to'have lov'd a man
  So foul and coarse as, oh, I may seem then,
  This shall say what I was, and thou shalt say,
  "Do his hurts reach me? doth my worth decay?
  Or do they reach his judging mind, that he
  Should now love less, what he did love to see?

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 17-20

  That which in him was fair and delicate,
  Was but the milk which in love's childish state
  Did nurse it; who now is grown strong enough
  To feed on that, which to disus'd tastes seems tough."

  

  

  

  

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“Elegy V: His Picture” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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• Rhetorical Question

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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“Elegy V: His Picture” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• My picture
• Thine, Thee, Thou
• Dwells
• 'Tis
• 'Twill
• 'Twas
• Weather-beaten
• Rude
• Breast
• Haircloth
• With care's rash sudden storms being o'erspread
• Body'a
• Powder's blue stains
• Rival fools
• Tax
• To'have
• Coarse
• Shalt
• Doth
• Disus'd

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Elegy V: His Picture”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Elegy V: His Picture” Speaker

“Elegy V: His Picture” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Elegy V: His Picture”

More “Elegy V: His Picture” Resources

• External Resources

  • A Brief Biography — Learn about Donne's life and work via the Poetry Foundation.

  • His Picture — Admire a famous portrait of Donne in which he poses as a melancholy young lover.

  • Donne's Tomb — Learn more about another famous "picture" that has survived Donne: his strange, eerie funerary statue in St. Paul's Cathedral.

  • Donne's Legacy — Read a review of a recent Donne biography that discusses his enduring influence.

  • The Metaphysicals — Learn more about the Metaphysical poets in this article from the British Library.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by John Donne

  • A Hymn to God the Father

  • Air and Angels

  • A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

  • A Valediction: Of Weeping

  • Holy Sonnet 10: Death, be not proud

  • Holy Sonnet 14: Batter my heart, three-person'd God

  • Holy Sonnet 1: Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?

  • Holy Sonnet 6: This is my play's last scene

  • Holy Sonnet 7: At the round earth's imagined corners

  • Hymn to God My God, in My Sickness

  • No Man Is an Island

  • Song: Go and catch a falling star

  • The Apparition

  • The Canonization

  • The Dream

  • The Ecstasy

  • The Flea

  • The Good-Morrow

  • The Relic

  • The Sun Rising

  • The Triple Fool

  • To His Mistress Going to Bed