I. 3. i66g, Me it suck'd first and now it sucks thee,

1. 5. 1669, Confess it. This 1. 6. 1669, or shame , , , or I. 9. 1669, could 1. II. 1669, nay
VOL. I. T
2 DONNE'S POEMS.
Though parents grudge, and you, we're met, And cloister'd in these living walls of jet. Though use make you apt to kill me, Let not to that self-murder added be, And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.
Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence ? 20
"Wherein could this flea guilty be,
Except in that drop which it suck'd from thee ?
Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou
Find'st not thyself nor me the weaker now. 'Tis true ; then learn how false fears be ; Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me, Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.
L 22. 1669, thai blood
SONGS AND SONNETS.
THE GOOD-MORROW.
I WONDER, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved ? were we not wean'd till then ?
But suck'd on country pleasures, childishly ?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers' den ?
'Twas so ; but this, all pleasures fancies be ;
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee.
And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear ;
For love all love of other sights controls, lo
And makes one little room an everywhere. |
Tlet sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone ;
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown ;
Let us possess one world ; each hath one, and is one.
My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest ;
Where can we find two better hemispheres
"Without sharp north, without declining west ?
Whatever dies, was not mix'd equally ;
If our two loves be one, or thou and I 20
Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die.
1. 3. 1669, childish pleasures, sillily
1. 4. 1669, slumbered L 5. 1669, but as
1. 13. 1669, to other worlds our world
1. 17. 1635, Jitter 1. 19. 1669, is not
1. 20. 1635 both thou and I
Lave just alike in all, none of these loves can die.
DONNE'S POEMS.
/
SONG.
Go and catch a falling star,
Get with child a mandrake root, Tell me where all past years are,
Or who cleft the devil's foot, Teach me to hear mermaids singing, Or to keep off envy's stinging, And find What wind Serves to advance an honest mind.
If thou be'st born to strange sights, lo
Things invisible to see, Ride ten thousand days and nights, Till age snow white hairs on thee, Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me. All strange wonders that befell thee. And swear. No where Lives a woman true and fair.
If thou find'st one, let me know ;
Such a pilgrimage were sweet. 20
Yet do not, I would not go,
Though at next door we might meet.
1. 3. 1669, times past 1. ii. 1669, go see
SONGS AND SONNETS.
Though she were true when you met her, And last till you write your letter,
Yet she
Will be False, ere I come, to two or three, v*
woman's constancy.
Now thou hast loved me one whole day, To-morrow when thou leavest, what wilt thou say ? Wilt thou then antedate some new-made vow ?
Or say that now We are not just those persons which we were ? Or that oaths made in reverential fear Of Love, and his wrath, any may forswear ? Or, as true deaths true marriages untie. So lovers' contracts, images of those, Bind but till sleep, death's image, them unloose ? 10
Or, your own end to justify, For having purposed change and falsehood, you Can have no way but falsehood to be true ? Vain lunatic, against these 'scapes I could
Dispute, and conquer, if I would ;
Which I abstain to do. For by to-morrow I may think so too.
1. 27. i66g, ere she come
1. 8. So 1633, 1669; 1635, For as, lines 8-10 being in brackets.
DONNE'S POEMS.
THE UNDERTAKING.
I HAVE done one braver thing
Than all the Worthies did ; And yet a braver thence doth spring,
Which is, to keep that hid.
It were but madness now to impart
The skill of specular stone, When he, which can have learn'd the art
To cut it, can find none.
So, if I now should utter this,
Others — because no more lo
Such stuff to work upon, there is —
Would love but as before.
But he who loveliness within Hath found, all outward loathes,
For he who colour loves, and skin, Loves but their oldest clothes.
If, as I have, you also do
Virtue in woman see. And dare love that, and say so too.
And forget the He and She ; 20
1. 18. So 163s ; 1633, Virtue attired in woman see
SONGS AND SONNETS.
And if this love, though placed so, From profane men you hide,
"Which will no faith on this bestow, Or, if they do, deride ;
Then you have done a braver thing Than all the Worthies did ;
And a braver thence will spring, Which is, to keep that hid.
THE SUN RISING.
Busy old fool, unruly Sun, Why dost thou thus, Through windows, and through curtains, call on us ? Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run ? Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide Late school-boys and sour prentices, Go tell court-huntsmen that the king will ride, Call country ants to harvest offices ; Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime, Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of lo time.
L 3. 1669. look OK us 1. 6. 1669, or sour
8 DONNE'S POEMS.
Thy beams so reverend, and strong
Why shouldst thou think ? I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink, But that I would not lose her sight so long.
If her eyes have not blinded thine,
Look, and to-morrow late tell me, Whether both th' Indias of spice and mine Be where thou left'st them, or lie here with mc. Ask for those kings whom thou saw'st yesterday, And thou shalt hear, "All here in one bed lay." 20
She's all states, and all princes I ;
Nothing else is ; Princes do but play us ; compared to this, All honour's mimic, all wealth alchemy.
Thou, Sun, art half as happy as we,
In that the world's contracted thus ; Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be To warm the world, that's done in warming us. Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere ; This bed thy centre is, these walls thy sphere. 30
1. II. 1635,
Thy beams so reverend, atid strong
Dost thou not think I could eclipse and cloud them with a 7vink, But that I would not lose her sis^ht so long ? 1. 18. 1635, left them
SOATGS AND SONNETS.
THE INDIFFERENT.
I CAN love both fail and brown ;
Her whom abundance melts, and her whom want
betrays ; Her who loves loneness best, and her who masks and
plays ; Her whom the country form'd, and whom the town ; Her who believes, and her who tries ; Her who still weeps with spongy eyes, And her who is dry cork, and never cries. I can love her, and her, and you, and you ; I can love any, so she be not true.
Will no other vice content you ? lo
Will it not serve your turn to do as did your mothers ? Or have you all old vices spent and now would find
out others ? Or doth a fear that men are true torment you ? O we are not, be not you so ; Let me — and do you — twenty know ; Rob me, but bind me not, and let me go. Must I, who came to travel thorough you. Grow your fix'd subject, because you are true ?
1. 3. 1669, Her who loves lovers best, and her who sports and plays
1. 12. i66g, vices worn
L 17. So 1635 ; 1633 travailt
lo DONNE'S POEMS,
Venus heard me sigh this song ;
And by love's sweetest part, variety, she swore, 20
She heard not this till now ; it should be so no more.
She went, examined, and retnrn'd ere long.
And said, '* Alas ! some two or three
Poor heretics in love there be,
Which think to stablish dangerous constancy.
But I have told them, ' Since you will be true,
You shall be true to them who' re false to you.'
» >}
love's usury.
For every hour that thou wilt spare me now,
I will allow, Usurious god of love, twenty to thee. When with my brown my grey hairs equal be. Till then, Love, let my body range, and let Me travel, sojourn, snatch, plot, have, forget, Resume my last year's relict ; think that yet
We'd never met.