Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 1-9
For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love;
Or chide my palsy, or my gout;
My five grey hairs, or ruin'd fortune flout;
With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve;
Take you a course, get you a place,
Observe his Honour, or his Grace;
Or the king's real, or his stamp'd face
Contemplate; what you will, approve,
So you will let me love.
- Will you knock it off already? Sorry—that's not us speaking to you, Shmoopers. It's this poem's speaker speaking to…well, someone.
- He seems exasperated, using the figurative expression "hold your tongue" to tell the addressed to shut his (or her) face.
- He (and we're just assuming the speaker's a he at this point—check out "Speaker" for more) just wants to be left alone in peace…to love. Aww.
- The speaker goes on to invite the addressed to make fun of his ("chide") tremors ("palsy") or some other physical malady, like gout (a condition that causes your joints to swell).
- Or how about making fun of the speaker's gray hair, or his ruined financial state? Sheesh—the speaker sure is giving the addressed a lot of options to poke fun of him here.
- Then the speaker switches strategies. Rather than giving the addressed options to make fun of, he suggests better uses for the addressed's time, like making himself wealthy or enriching his mind with art. (Line 4 is a bit tricky, but "improve" is meant to be the verb for both of those phrases. In other words, the speaker is saying, "Improve your state with wealth, or improve your mind with arts.")
- If those pursuits don't sound good, how about taking a class or getting a job or some elevated social position ("place")?
- The addressed could also check out ("Observe") a judge ("his Honour") or a member of royalty ("his Grace"). He (or she) could even contemplate the king himself—in real life or in the likeness of a stamp or coin.
- Our speaker wishes that the addressed would just do anything that would allow him to love. Get off his back already.
- Before we head on to stanza 2, we'll just point out—in case you didn't notice—that the speaker is getting his exasperation across with a hefty does of end rhyme and a regular meter. For more on how this poem is put together, check out "Form and Meter."