XV. 1. 12. So 1635 ; 1633, Satan stotn

xvi. 1. 8. 1635 omits do
DIVINE POEMS. 167
THE CROSS.
Since Christ embraced the cross itself, dare I
His image, th' image of His cross, deny ?
Would I have profit by the sacrifice.
And dare the chosen altar to despise ?
It bore all other sins, but is it fit
That it should bear the sin of scorning it ?
Who from the picture would avert his eye,
How would he fly his pains who there did die ?
From me no pulpit, nor misgrounded law.
Nor scandal taken, shall this cross withdraw, 10
It shall not, for it cannot ; for the loss
Of this cross were to me another cross.
Better were worse, for no affliction,
No cross is so extreme, as to have none.
Who can blot out the cross, which th' instrument
Of God dew'd on me in the Sacrament ?
Who can deny me power, and liberty
To stretch mine arms, and mine own cross to be ?
Swim, and at every stroke thou art thy cross ;
The mast and yard make one, where seas do toss ; 20
Look down, thou spiest out crosses in small things ;
Look up, thou seest birds raised on crossed wings ;
All the globe's frame, and spheres, is nothing else
But the meridians crossing parallels.
Material crosses then good physic be,
But yet spiritual have chief dignity.
These for extracted chemic medicine serve,
And cure much better, and as well preser\'e.
1 68 DONNE'S POEMS.
Then are you your own physic, or need none. When still'd or purged by tribulation ; 30
For when that cross ungrudged unto you sticks, Then are you to yourself a crucifix. As perchance carvers do not faces make, But that away, which hid them there, do take j Let crosses, so, take what hid Christ in thee, And be His image, or not His, but He. But, as oft alchemists do coiners prove. So may a self-despising get self-love ; And then, as worst surfeits of best meats be. So is pride, issued from humility, 40
For 'tis no child, but monster ; therefore cross Your joy in crosses, else 'tis double loss. And cross thy senses, else both they and thou Must perish soon, and to destruction bow. For if the eye seek good objects, and will take No cross from bad, we cannot 'scape a snake. So with harsh, hard, sour, stinking ; cross the rest ; Make them indifferent ; call, nothing best. But most the eye needs crossing, that can roam, And move ; to th' others th' objects must come home. 50
And cross thy heart ; for that in man alone Pants downwards, and hath palpitation. Cross those dejections, when it downward tends, And when it to forbidden heights pretends.
1. 45. 1650, see 1. 48. 1635, all, nothing best
1. 50. 1635, To tK others objects 1. 53. 1635, detorsions
DIVINE POEMS. 169
And as the brain through bony walls doth vent
By sutures, which a cross's form present,
So when thy brain works, ere thou utter it,
Cross and correct concupiscence of wit.
Be covetous of crosses ; let none fall ;
Cross no man else, but cross thyself in all. 60
Then doth the cross of Christ work faithfully
Within our hearts, when we love harmlessly
The cross's pictures much, and with more care
That cross's children, which our crosses are.
RESURKECTION, IMPERFECT.
Sleep, sleep, old sun, thou canst not have repass'd,
As yet, the wound thou took'st on Friday last ;
Sleep then, and rest ; the world may bear thy stay ;
A better sun rose before thee to-day ;
Who — not content to enlighten all that dwell
On the earth's face, as thou — enlighten'd hell,
And made the dark fires languish in that vale,
As at thy presence here our fires grow pale ;
Whose body, having walk'd on earth, and now
Hasting to heaven, would — that He might allow lo
Himself unto all stations, and fill all —
For these three days become a mineral.
He was all gold when He lay down, but rose
All tincture, and doth not alone dispose
Leaden and iron wills to good, but is
Of power to make e'en sinful flesh like his,
1. 15. Query, to gold
170 DONNE'S POEMS.
Had one of those, whose credulous piety
Thought that a soul one might discern and see
Go from a body, at this sepulchre been,
And, issuing from the sheet, this body seen, 20
He would have justly thought this body a soul,
If not of any man, yet of the whole.
Desunt Cactera,
THE ANNUNCIATION AND PASSION.
TAJIELY, frail body, abstain to-day ; to-day
My soul eats twice, Christ hither and away.
She sees Him man, so like God made in this,
That of them both a circle emblem is,
Whose first and last concur ; this doubtful day
Of feast or fast, Clirist came, and went away ;
She sees Him nothing, twice at once, who's all j
She sees a cedar plant itself, and fall ;
Her Maker put to making, and the head
Of life at once not yet alive, yet dead ; 10
She sees at once the Virgin Mother stay
Reclused at home, public at Golgotha ;
Sad and rejoiced she's seen at once, and seen
At almost fifty, and at scarce fifteen ;
At once a son is promised her, and gone ;
Gabriel gives Christ to her, He her to John ;
Not fully a mother, she's in orbity j
At once receiver and the legacy.
1. I. 1635, frail flesh
1. I. 1650 omits the second to-day
L 10. 1635, and dead
DIVINE POEMS. 171
All this, and all between, this day hath shown,
Th' abridgement of Christ's story, which makes one —
As in plain maps, the furthest west is east — 21
Of th' angels Ave^ and Conswnmattim est.
How well the Church, God's Court of Faculties,
Deals, in sometimes, and seldom joining these.
As by the self-fix'd Pole we never do
Direct our course, but the next star thereto,
"Which shows where th'other is, and which we say
— Because it strays not far — doth never stray.
So God by His Church, nearest to him, we know,
And stand firm, if we by her motion go. 30
His Spirit, as His fiery pillar, doth
Lead, and His Church, as cloud ; to one end both.
This Church by letting those days join, hath shown
Death and conception in mankind is one ;
Or 'twas in Him the same humility,
That He would be a man, and leave to be j
Or as creation He hath made, as God,
With the last judgment but one period,
His imitating spouse would join in one
INIanhood's extremes ; He shall come, He is gone ; 40
Or as though one blood drop, which thence did fall,
Accepted, would have served, He yet shed all,
So though the least of His pains, deeds, or words,
Would busy a life, she all this day affords.
This treasure then, in gross, my soul, uplay,
And in my life retail it every day.
1. 31. 1635, and His fiery pillar L 33. 1635, those feasts I. 34. 1635, are one
172 DONNE'S POEMS.
GOOD-FRIDAY, 1613, RIDING WESTWARD.
Let man's soul be a sphere, and then, in this, Th' intelligence that moves, devotion is ; And as the other spheres, by being grown Subject to foreign motion, lose their own, And being by others hurried every day, Scarce in a year their natural form obey ; Pleasure or business, so, our souls admit For their first mover, and are whirl'd by it. Hence is't, that I am carried towards the west, This day, when my soul's form bends to the East. 10 There I should see a Sun by rising set, And by that setting endless day beget. But that Christ on His cross did rise and fall. Sin had eternally benighted all. Yet dare I almost be glad, I do not see That spectacle of too much weight for me. Who sees God's face, that is self-life, must die ; What a death were it then to see God die ? It made His own lieutenant. Nature, shrink, It made His footstool crack, and the sun wink. 20 Could I behold those hands, which span the poles And tune all spheres at once, pierced with those holes ?
1. 10. So 1635 ; 1633, towards the East 1. 13. So 1635 ; 1633, this cross
DIVINE POEMS. 173
Could I behold that endless height, which is Zenith to us and our antipodes, Humbled below us ? or that blood, which is The seat of all our souls, if not of His, Made dirt of dust, or that flesh which was worn By God for His apparel, ragg'd and torn ? If on these things I durst not look, durst I On His distressed Mother cast mine eye, 30
Who was God's partner here, and furnish'd thus Half of that sacrifice which ransom'd us ? Though these things as I ride be from mine eye, They're present yet unto my memory, For that looks towards them ; and Thou look'st towards me,
0 Saviour, as Thou hang'st upon the tree.
1 turn my back to Thee but to receive Corrections till Thy mercies bid Thee leave. O think me worth Thine anger, punish me,
Burn oflf my rust, and my deformity ; 40
Restore Thine image, so much, by Thy grace, That Thou mayst know me, and I'll turn my face.
L 30. So 1635 ; 1633, Upon his viiserable mother L 40. So 1635 ; 1633, rusts
174 DONNE'S POEMS.
A LITANY. I.
THE FATHER.
Father of Heaven, and Him, by whom It, and us for it, and all else for us.
Thou madest and govem'st ever, come And re-create me, now grown ruinous. My heart is by dejection, clay, And by self-murder, red. From this red earth, O Father, purge away All vicious tinctures, that new-fashioned I may rise up from death, before I'm dead.
II.
the son.
O Son of God, who, seeing two things, ic
Sin and Death, crept in, which were never made,
By bearing one, tried'st with what stings The other could Thine heritage invade ; O be Thou nail'd unto my heart, And crucified again ; Part not from it, though it from Thee would part, But let it be by applying so Thy pain, Drown'd in Thy blood, and in Thy passion slain.
DIVINE POEMS, 175
III.
THE HOLY GHOST.
O Holy Ghost, whose temple I Am, but of mud walls, and condensed dust, 20
And being sacrilegiously Half wasted with youth's fires of pride and lust. Must with new storms be weather-beat, Double in my heart Thy flame, Which let devout sad tears intend, and let — Though this glass lanthom, fiesh, do suffer maim — Fire, sacrifice, priest, altar be the same.
IV.
THE TRINITY.
O blessed glorious Trinity, Bones to philosophy, but milk to faith,
Which, as wise serpents, diversely 30
Most slipperiness, yet most entanglings hath, As you distinguish'd, undistinct, By power, love, knowledge be, Give me a such self different instinct. Of these let all me elemented be. Of power, to love, to know you unnumbered three.
1. 34. 163s, omits a
176 DONNE'S POEMS.
V.
THE VIRGIN MARY.
For that fair blessed mother-maid, "Whose flesh redeem'd us, that she-cherubin,
Which unlock'd paradise, and made One claim for innocence, and disseized sin, 40
Whose womb was a strange heaven, for there God clothed Himself, and grew. Our zealous thanks we pour. As her deeds were Our helps, so are her prayers ; nor can she sue In vain, who hath such titles unto you.
VI.
THE ANGELS.
And since this life our nonage is, And we in wardship to Thine angels be,
Native in heaven's fair palaces Where we shall be but denizen'd by Thee ;
As th' earth conceiving by the sun, 50
Yields fair diversity, Yet never knows what course that light doth run j So let me study that mine actions be Worthy their sight, though blind in how they see.
DIVINE POEMS. 177
VII.
THE PATRIARCHS.
And let Thy patriarchs' desire, — Those great grandfatliers of Thy Church, which saw
More in the cloud than we in fire, Whom nature clear'd more, than us grace and law, And now in heaven still pray, that we May use our new helps right — 6o
Be satisfied, and fructify in me ; Let not my mind be blinder by more light, Nor faith by reason added lose her sight.
VIII.
THE PROPHETS.
Thy eagle-sighted prophets too, — Which were Thy Church's organs, and did sound
That harmony which made of two One law, and did unite, but not confound ; Those heavenly poets which did see Thy will, and it express In rhythmic feet — in common pray for me, 70
That I by them excuse not my excess In seeking secrets, or poeticness.
1. 61. So 1635 ; 1633, Be sanctified VOL.1. 12
178 DONNE'S POEMS.
IX.
THE APOSTLES.
And thy illustrious zodiac Of twelve apostles, which engirt this All, — From whom whosoever do not take Their light, to dark deep pits throw down and fall ; — As through their prayers Thou'st let me know That their books are divine, May they pray still, and be heard, that I go Th' old broad way in applying ; O decline 80
Me, when my comment would make Thy word mine.
THE MARTYRS.
And since Thou so desirously Didst long to die, that long before Thou couldst,
And long since Thou no more couldst die, Thou in thy scatter'd mystic body wouldst In Abel die, and ever since In Thine ; let their blood come To beg for us a discreet patience Of death, or of worse life ; for O, to some Not to be martyrs, is a martyrdom. 90
L 76. 1635, thrown down do/ail
DIVINE POEMS, 179
XI.
THE CONFESSORS.
Therefore with Thee triumpheth there A virgin squadron of white confessors,
Whose bloods betroth'd not married were, Tender'd, not taken by those ravishers.
They know, and pray that we may know, In every Christian Hourly tempestuous persecutions grow ; Temptations martyr us alive ; a man Is to himself a Diocletian.
XII.
THE VIRGINS,
The cold white snowy nunnery, lOO
Which, as Thy Mother, their high abbess, sent
Their bodies back again to Thee, As Thou hadst lent them, clean and innocent ;
Though they have not obtain'd of Thee, That or Thy Church or I Should keep, as they, our first integrity. Divorce Thou sin in us, or bid it die, And call chaste widowhead virginity.
l8o DONNE'S POEMS.
XTII. THE DOCTORS.
The sacred academy above Of doctors, whose pains have unclasp'd, and taught no
Both books of life to us — for love To know Thy scriptures tells us, we are wrote In Thy other book — pray for us there, That what they have misdone Or missaid, we to that may not adhere. Their zeal may be our sin. Lord, let us run Mean ways, and call them stars, but not the sun.
XIV.
And whilst this universal quire, That Church in triumph, this in warfare here,
Warm'd with one all-partaking fire 1 20
Of love, that none be lost, which cost Thee dear, Prays ceaselessly, and Thou hearken too — Since to be gracious Our task is treble, to pray, bear, and do — Hear this prayer, Lord ; O Lord, deliver us From trusting in those prayers, though pour'd out thus.
1. 109. 1635, acadcm
DIVINE POEMS. i8l
XV.
From being anxious, or secure, Dead clods of sadness, or light squibs of mirth,
From thinking that great courts immure All, or no happiness, or that this earth 1 30
Is only for our prison framed, Or that Thou'rt covetous To them whom Thou lovest, or that they are maini'd From reaching this world's sweet who seek Thee
thus, With all their might, good Lord, deliver us.
XVI.
From needing danger, to be good, From owing Thee yesterday's tears to-day,
From trusting so much to Thy blood That in that hope we wound our soul away.
From bribing Thee with alms, to excuse 140 Some sin more burdenous, From light affecting, in religion, news. From thinking us all soul, neglecting thus Our mutual duties, Lord, deliver us.