I. 20. 1669, stveetest sweet

1. 21. So 1635 ; 1633, and that it
1. 5. So 1635 ; 1633, raigne
1. 6. So 1633, 1669 ; 1635, match, plot, have, forget
1. 7. 1669, rclique
SONGS AND SONNETS. il
Let me think any rival's letter mine,
And at next nine lO
Keep midnight's promise ; mistake by the way The maid, and tell the lady of that delay ; Only let me love none ; no, not the sport From country grass to confitures of court, Or city's quelqtie-choses ; let not report
My mind transport.
This bargain's good ; if when I'm old, I be
Inflamed by thee, If thine own honour, or my shame and pain, Thou covet most, at that age thou shalt gain. 2C
Do thy will then ; then subject and degree And fruit of love, Love, I submit to thee. Spare me till then ; I'll bear it, though she be One that love me.
1. 12. 1669, her delay
1. 15. So 1635 ; 1633, 1669 omit not
1. 19. 1669, or pain
1. 24. So 1635 ; 1633, 1669, loves me
BONNES POEMS.
THE CANONIZATION.
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.
Alas ! alas ! who's injured by my love ? lo
What merchant's ships have my sighs drown'd ? Who says my tears have overflow'd his ground ? When did my colds a forward spring remove ? When did the heats which my veins fill Add one more to the plaguy bill ? Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still Litigious men, which quarrels move. Though she and I do love.
Call's what you will, we are made such by love ; Call her one, me another fly, 20
We're tapers too, and at our own cost die,
And we in us find th' eagle and the dove.
1. 3. So 1633, 1635, trut grey hairs ; 1669, five . , . fortunes
1. 14. 1669, reins L 15. 1669, one man
1 17. 1669, wliom 1, 18. 1669, While
SONGS AND SONNETS. 13
The phoenix riddle hath more wit By us ; we two being one, are it ; So, to one neutral thing both sexes fit. We die and rise the same, and prove Mysterious by this love.
We can die by it, if not live by love, And if unfit for tomb or hearse Our legend be, it will be fit for verse ; 30
And if no piece of chronicle we prove, We'll build in sonnets pretty rooms ; As well a well-wrought urn becomes The greatest ashes, as half-acre tombs. And by these hymns all shall approve Us canonized for love ;
And thus invoke us, "You, whom reverend love Made one another's hermitage ; You, to whom love was peace, that now is rage ; Who did the whole world's soul contract, ana drove 40
Into the glasses of your eyes ; So made such mirrors, and such spies, That they did all to you epitomize — Countries, towns, courts beg from above A pattern of your love."
1. 29. So 1669 ; 1633, iomds and
1- 35- 1635, those
1. 45. So 1669 ; 1633, our love
14 DONNE'S POEMS,
THE TRIPLE FOOL.
I AM two fools, I know,
For loving, and for saying so In whining poetry ; But Where's that wise man, that would not be I,
If she would not deny ? Then as th' earth's inward narrow crooked lanes
Do purge sea water's fretful salt away, I thought, if I could draw my pains
Through rhyme's vexation, I should them allay. Grief brought to numbers cannot be so fierce, lo For he tames it, that fetters it in verse.
But when I have done so.
Some man, his art and voice to show, Doth set and sing my pain ; And, by delighting many, frees again
Grief, which verse did restrain. To love and grief tribute of verse belongs,
But not of such as pleases when 'tis read. Both are increased by such songs.
For both their triumphs so are published, 20 And I, which was two fools, do so grow three. Who are a little wise, the best fools be.
1. 4. 1669, the wiser man 1. 10. 1669, number 1. 13. 1669, or voice
SONGS AND SONNETS. 15
lovers' infiniteness.
If yet I have not all thy love, Dear, I shall never have it all ; I cannot breathe one other sigh, to move, Nor can intreat one other tear to fall j And all my treasure, which should purchase thee, Sighs, tears, and oaths, and letters I have spent ; Yet no more can be due to me, Than at the bargain made was meant. If then thy gift of love were partial, That some to me, some should to others fall, 10 Dear, I shall never have thee all.
Or if then thou gavest me all, All was but all, which thou hadst then ; But if in thy heart since there be or shall New love created be by other men, Which have their stocks entire, and can in tears, In sighs, in oaths, and letters, outbid me, This new love may beget new fears, For this love was not vow'd by thee. And yet it was, thy gift being general ; 20
The ground, thy heart, is mine ; what ever shall Grow there, dear, I should have it all.
1.9. 1669, was 1. II. 1635, it all
1. 12. 1669, givesi L 17. 1635, in letters
1. 21. So 1633, 1669 ; 1635, was mine
l6 DONNE'S POEMS.
Yet I would not have all yet.
He that hath all can have no more ;
And since my love doth every day admit
New growth, thou shouldst have new rewards in
store ; Thou canst not every day give me thy heart, If thou canst give it, then thou never gavest it ; Love's riddles are, that though thy heart depart, It stays at home, and thou with losing savest it ; 30 But we will have a way more liberal, Than changing hearts, to join them ; so we shall* Be one, and one another's all.
"^ SONG.
Sweetest love, I do not go,
For weariness of thee, Nor in hope the world can show
A fitter love for me ; But since that I At the last must part, 'tis best, Thus to use myself in jest
By feigned deaths to die.
L 31. 1669, will love 1. 32. 1669, jo 171 us
U. 6-8. So 1635 ;
1633 — Afusl die at last, 'tis best, To use myself in Jest Thus by feigfi'd deaths to die.
l66g~-Afust die at last, 'tis best, Thus to use myself in jest By feigned death to die.
SONGS AND SONNETS. 17
Yesternight the sun went hence,
And yet is here to-day ; 10
He hath no desire nor sense,
Nor half so short a way; Then fear not me, But believe that I shall make Speedier journeys, since I take
More wings and spurs than he.
O how feeble is man's power,
That if good fortune fall, Cannot add another hour,
Nor a lost hour recall ; 20
But come bad chance, And we join to it our strength. And we teach it art and length,
Itself o'er us to advance.
When thou sigh'st, thou sigh'st not wind,
But sigh'st my soul away ; "When thou weep'st, unkindly kind,
My life's blood doth decay. It cannot be That thou lovest me as thou say'st, 30
If in thine my life thou waste,
That art the best of me.
1. 15. 1669, Hastier 1. 25. 1635, no wind
1. 32. So 1635 ; 1633, Thou art; 1669, Which art the life VOL. I. 2
i8 DONNE'S POEMS.
Let not thy divining heart
Forethink me any ill ; Destiny may take thy part,
And may thy fears fulfil. But think that we Are but turn'd aside to sleep. They who one another keep
Alive, ne'er parted be. 40
THE LEGACY.
When last I died, and, dear, I die
As often as from thee I go,
Though it be but an hour ago
— And lovers' hours be full eternity —
I can remember yet, that I
Something did say, and something did bestow ;
Though I be dead, which sent me, I might be
Mine own executor, and legacy.
1. 36. So 1633, 1669 ; 1635, make 1. 38. 1669, laid aside 1. I. So 1669 ; 1633, / died last
1. 7. So 1669; 1633, / should be; 1635, -which meant me, I should be
SONGS AND SONNETS. 19
I heard me say, "Tell her anon,
That myself," that is you, not I, 10
" Did kill me," and when I felt me die,
I bid me send my heart, when I was gone ;
But I alas ! could there find none ;
When I had ripp'd, and search'd where hearts should
lie, IL kill'd me again, that I who still was true In life, in my last will should cozen you.
Yet I found something like a heart,
But colours it, and corners had ;
It was not good, it was not bad,
It was entire to none, and few had part ; 20
As good as could be made by art
It seemed, and therefore for our loss be sad.
I meant to send that heart instead of mine,
But O ! no man could hold it, for 'twas thine.
1. 14. So 1635 ; 1633, ripp'd mc . , , did lie L 22. So 1669 ; 1633, losses sad
20 DONNE'S POEMS,
A FEVER.
O ! DO not die, for I shall hate All women so, when thou art gone,
That thee I shall not celebrate. When I remember thou wast one.
But yet thou canst not die, I know ;
To leave this world behind, is death ; But when thou from this world wilt go.
The whole world vapours with thy breath.
Or if, when thou, the world's soul, go'st.
It stay, 'tis but thy carcase then ; lo
The fairest woman, but thy ghost,
But corrupt worms, the worthiest men.
O wrangling schools, that search what fire Shall burn this world, had none the wit
Unto this knowledge to aspire, That this her fever might be it ?
And yet she cannot waste by this. Nor long bear this torturing wrong,
For more corruption needful is,
To fuel such a fever long. 20
1. 8. 1669, /;; thy breath 1. 18. 1669, endure
SONGS AND SONNETS, 21
These burning fits but meteors be, Whose matter in thee is soon spent ;
Thy beauty, and all parts, which are thee. Are unchangeable firmament.
Yet 'twas of my mind, seizing thee, Though it in thee cannot persever ;
For I had rather owner be Of thee one hour, than all else ever. 28
AIR AND ANGELS.
Twice or thrice had I loved thee,
Before I knew thy face or name ;
So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame, Angels affect us oft, and worshipp'd be.
Still when, to where thou wert, I came, iSome lovely glorious nothing did I see.
But since my soul, whose child love is, Takes limbs of flesh, and else could nothing do,
More subtle than the parent is Love must not be, but take a body too ; 10
And therefore what thou wert, and who, I bid love ask, and now That it assume thy body, I allow, And fix itself in thy lips, eyes, and brow.
1. 22. 1669, soon is 1. 24. 1669, An
1. 25. 1669, And here as 1. 27. 1669, Yet,
1. 6. So 1669 ; 1633, / did L 14. So 1669 ; 1633, lip, eye
22 DONNE'S POEMS,
Whilst thus to ballast love I thought,
And so more steadily to have gone,
With wares which would sink admiration, I saw I had love's pinnace overfraught ;
Thy every hair for love to work upon Is much too much ; some fitter must be sought ; 20
For, nor in nothing, nor in things Extreme, and scattering bright, can love inhere ;
Then as an angel face and wings Of air, not pure as it, yet pure doth wear.
So thy love may be my love's sphere ; Just such disparity As is 'twixt air's and angels' purity, 'Twixt women's love, and men's, will ever be.
BREAK OF DAY.
Stay, O sweet, and do not rise ; The light that shines comes from thine eyes ; The day breaks not, it is my heart, Because that you and I must part.
Stay, or else my joys will die
And perish in their infancy.
1. 19. So 1669 ; 1633, Every thy 1. 27. So 1669 ; 1633, air
SONGS AND SONNETS. 23
[another of the same.]
Tis true, 'tis day ; what though it be ?
O, wilt thou therefore rise from me ?
Why should we rise because 'tis light ?
Did we lie down because 'twas night ?
Love, which in spite of darkness brought us hither,
Should in despite of light keep us together.
Light hath no tongue, but is all eye ;
If it could speak as well as spy.
This -vere the worst that it could say,
That Deing well I fain would stay, 10
And t'lat I loved my heart and honour so,
That 1 would not from him, that had them, go.
Must business thee from hence remove ?
O ! thtt's the worst disease of love.
The pcx)r, the foul, the false, love can
Admit, but not the busied man.
He whch hath business, and makes love, doth do
Such wrong, as when a married man doth woo.
1. 6. So 1633, 1669 ; 1635, spite
L 12. i66g, from /ler
1. 18. So 1633, 1669 ; 1635, should woo
24 DONNE'S POEMS,
THE ANNIVERSARY.
All kings, and all their favourites,
All glory of honours, beauties, wits, The sun itself, which makes time, as they pass, Is elder by a year now than it was When thou and I first one another saw. All other things to their destruction draw.
Only our love hath no decay ; This no to-morrow hath, nor yesterday ; Running it never runs from us away, But truly keeps his first, last, everlasting day. lo
Two graves must hide thine and my corse ;
If one might, death were no divorce. Alas ! as well as other princes, we — Who prince enough in one another be — Must leave at last in death these eyes and ears. Oft fed with true oaths, and with sweet salt :ears ;
But souls where nothing dwells but love — All other thoughts being inmates — then shall prove This or a love increased there above, When bodies to their graves, souls from thsir graves remove. 20
And then we shall be throughly blest ; But now no more than all the rest.
1. 3. So 1633, 1669 ; 163s, as these pass ; i6p, times
SONGS AND SONNETS. 25
Here upon earth we're kings, and none but we Can be such kings, nor of such subjects be. Who is so safe as we ? where none can do Treason to us, except one of us two. True and false fears let us refrain, Let us love nobly, and live, and add again Years and years unto years, till we attain To write threescore ; this is the second of our reign. 30
A VALEDICTION OF MY NAME, IN THE WINDOW.
I.
My name engraved herein Doth contribute my firmness to this glass, Which ever since that charm hath been As hard, as that which graved it was ; Thine eye will give it price enough, to mock The diamonds of either rock.
II.
'Tis much that glass should be As all-confessing, and through-shine as I ; 'Tis more that it shows thee to thee, And clear reflects thee to thine eye. 10
But all such rules love's magic can undo ; Here you see me, and I am you.
\. 23. 1669 omits none 1. 24. 1669, None are 1. 12, 1669, and I see you
26 DONNE S POEMS.
III.
As no one point, nor clash, "Which are but accessories to this name, The showers and tempests can outwash So shall all times find me the same ; You this entireness better may fulfill, Who have the pattern with you still.
IV.
Or if too hard and deep This learning be, for a scratch'd name to teach, 20
It as a given death's head keep, Lovers' mortality to preach ; Or think this ragged bony name to be My ruinous anatomy.
V.
Then, as all my souls be Emparadised in you— in whom alone I understand, and grow, and see— The rafters of my body, bone. Being still with you, the muscle, sinew, and vein Which tile this house, will come again. 30
SONGS AND SONNETS. 27
VI.
Till my return repair And recompact my scatter'd body so, As all the virtuous powers which are Fix'd in the stars are said to flow Into such characters as graved be
"When these stars have supremacy.
VII.
So since this name was cut, When love and grief their exaltation had. No door 'gainst this name's influence shut. As much more loving, as more sad, 40
'Twill make thee ; and thou shouldst, till I re- turn, Since I die daily, daily mourn.
VIII.
When thy inconsiderate hand Flings ope this casement, with my trembling name, To look on one, whose wit or land New battery to thy heart may frame. Then think this name alive, and that thou thus In it offend'st my Genius.
i. 36. 1669, i/iose stars had I, 48. 1669, offends
28 DONNE'S POEMS.
IX.
And when thy melted maid, Corrupted by thy lover's gold and page, 50
His letter at thy pillow hath laid, Disputed it, and tamed thy rage. And thou begin'st to thaw towards him, for this, May my name step in, and hide his.
X.
And if this treason go To an overt act and that thou write again, In superscribing, this name flow Into thy fancy from the pane ; So, in forgetting thou rememb'rest right.
And unaware to me shalt write. 60
XI.
But glass and lines must be No means our firm substantial love to keep ; Near death inflicts this lethargy. And this I murmur in my sleep ; Impute this idle talk, to that I go, For dying men talk often so.
1. 50. 1669, or page 1. 52. 1669. Disputed thou it., and tame thy rage 1. 53, 1669, If thou to him begin st to thaw 1. 57. 1669, my 1. 58. 1635, fen 1. 64- 1635, thus
SO/VGS AND SONNETS. 29
TWICKENHAM GARDEN.
Blasted with sighs, and surrounded with tears,
Hither I come to seek the spring, And at mine eyes, and at mine ears.
Receive such balms as else cure every thing.
But O ! self-traitor, I do bring The spider Love, which transubstantiates all, And can convert manna to gall ; And that this place may thoroughly be thought True paradise, I have the serpent brought.
'Twere wholesomer for me that winter did 10
Benight the glory of this place, And that a grave frost did forbid
These trees to laugh and mock me to my face ;
But that I may not this disgrace Endure, nor yet leave loving, Love, let me Some senseless piece of this place be ; Make me a mandrake, so I may grow here, Or a stone fountain weeping out my year.
1. 4. 1635, lalm as else cures
L 6. 1669, spider s Love
1. 14. 1669, since I cannot
1. 15. 1635, nor leave this garden
1. 18, So 1633, 1669 ; 1635, the year
30 DONNE'S POEMS,
Hither with crystal phials, lovers, come,
And take my tears, which are love's wine, 20
And try your mistress' teai^s at home,
For all are false, that taste not just like mine. Alas ! hearts do not in eyes shine,
Nor can you more judge women's thoughts by tears,
Than by her shadow what she wears.
O perverse sex, where none is true but she,
Who's therefore true, because her truth kills me.
VALEDICTION TO HIS BOOK.
I'll tell thee now (dear love) what thou shalt do To anger destiny, as she doth us ; How I shall stay, though she eloign me thus, And how posterity shall know it too ; How thine may out-endure Sibyl's glory, and obscure Her who from Pindar could allure, And her, through whose help Lucan is not lame. And her, whose book (they say) Homer did find, and name.
Study our manuscripts, those myriads 10
Of letters, which have past 'twixt thee and me ; Thence write our annals, and in them will be To all whom love's subliming fire invades Rule and example found ; There the faith of any ground No schismatic will dare to wound,
SONGS AND SONNETS. 31
That sees, how Love this grace to us affords, To make, to keep, to use, to be these his records.
This book, as long-lived as the elements,
Or as the world's form, this all-graved tome 20 In cypher writ, or new made idiom ; We for Love's clergy only are instruments ; When this book is made thus, Should again the ravenous Vandals and the Goths invade us, Learning were safe ; in this our universe, Schools might learn sciences, spheres music, angels verse.
Here Love's divines — since all divinity Is love or wonder — may find all they seek, Whether abstract spiritual love they like, 30
Their souls exhaled with what they do not see ; Or, loth so to amuse Faith's infirmity, they choose Something which they may see and use ; For, though mind be the heaven, where love doth sit, Beauty a convenient type may be to figure it.
Here more than in their books may lawyers find, Both by what titles mistresses are ours. And how prerogative these states devours,
Transferr'd from Love himself, to womankind ; 40
1. 20. 1635, all-graved to me ; 1669, all-graved tomb L 30. 1650, abstracted 1. 33. 1669, infirmities
32 DONNE'S POEMS.
WTio, though from heart and eyes, They exact great subsidies, Forsake him who on them relies ; And for the cause, honour, or conscience give j Chimeras vain as they or their prerogative.
Here statesmen — or of them, they which can read — May of their occupation find the grounds ; Love, and their art, alike it deadly wounds, If to consider what 'tis, one proceed.
In both they do excel, 50
"Who the present govern well, Whose weakness none doth, or dares tell ; In this thy book, such will there something see, As in the Bible some can find out alchemy.
Thus vent thy thoughts ; abroad I'll study thee, As he removes far off, that great heights takes ; How great love is, presence best trial makes. But absence tries how long this love will be,; To take a latitude
Sun, or stars, are fitliest view'd 60
At their brightest, but to conclude Of longitudes, what other way have we. But to mark when and where the dark eclipses be ?
1. 53. So 1633, 1669 : 1635, iheir nothing 1. 55. So 1633, X669 : 1635, went
SONGS AND SONNETS. 33
COMMUNITY.
Good we must love, and must hate ill, For ill is ill, and good good still ;
But there are things indifferent, Which we may neither hate, nor love, But one, and then another prove,
As we shall find our fancy bent.
If then at first wise Nature had Made women either good or bad,
Then some we might hate, and some choose ; But since she did them so create, 10
That we may neither love, nor hate,
Only this rests, all all may use.
If they were good, it would be seen ; Good is as visible as green,
And to all eyes itself betrays. If they were bad, they could not last ; Bad doth itself and others waste ;
So they deserve nor blame, nor praise.
But they are ours as fruits are ours ;
He that but tastes, he that devours, 20
And he that leaves all, doth as well ; Changed loves are but changed sorts of meat ; And when he hath the kernel eat.
Who doth not fling away the shell ?
1. 4. So 1635 ; 1633, these are 1. 12. 1669, all men VOL. I. 3
34 DONNE'S POEMS
love's growth.
I SCARCE believe my love to be so pure
As I had thought it was,
Because it doth endure Vicissitude, and season, as the grass ; Methinks I lied all winter, when I swore My love was infinite, if spring make it more.
But if this medicine, love, which cures all sorrow With more, not only be no quintessence, But mix'd of all stuffs, vexing soul, or sense, And of the sun his active vigour borrow, lO
Love's not so pure, and abstract as they use To say, which have no mistress but their Muse ; But as all else, being elemented too, Love sometimes would contemplate, sometimes do.
And yet no greater, but more eminent,
Love by the spring is grown ;
As in the firmament Stars by the sun are not enlarged, but shown, Gentle love deeds, as blossoms on a bough. From love's awaken'd root do bud out now. 20
1. 9. So 1635 ; 162,2,, paining
L 10. So 1635 ; 1633, working vigour
SONGS AND SONNETS. 35
If, as in water stirr'd more circles be
Produced by one, love such additions take, Those like so many spheres but one heaven make, For they are all concentric unto thee ; And though each spring do add to love new heat, As princes do in times of action get New taxes, and remit them not in peace, No winter shall abate this spring's increase.
love's exchange.
Love, any devil else but you
Would for a given soul give something too.
At court your fellows every day
Give th' art of rhyming, huntsmanship, or play,
For them which were their own before ;
Only I have nothing, which gave more,
But am, alas t by being lowly, lower.
I ask no dispensation now.
To falsify a tear, or sigh, or vow j
I do not sue from thee to draw lO
A non obstante on nature's law ;
These are prerogatives, they inhere
In thee and thine ; none should forswear
Except that he Love's minion were.
1. 28. So 1635 : 1633, the springs L Q. i66q, a sigh, a vo-u>
36 BONNES POEMS.
Give me thy weakness, make me blind,
Both ways, as thou and thine, in eyes and mind ;
Love, let me never know that this
Is love, or, that love childish is ;
Let me not know that others know
That she knows my pains, lest that so 20
A tender shame make me mine own new woe.
If thou give nothing, yet thou 'rt just.
Because I would not thy first motions trust ;
Small towns which stand stiff, till great shot
Enforce them, by war's law condition not ;
Such in Love's warfare is my case ;
I may not article for grace.
Having put Love at last to show this face.
This face, by which he could command
And change th' idolatry of any land, 30
This face, which, wheresoe'er it comes.
Can call vow'd men from cloisters, dead from tornbs.
And melt both poles at once, and store
Deserts with cities, and make more
Mines in the earth, than quarries were before.
For this Love is enraged with me,
Yet kills not ; if I must example be
To future rebels, if th* unborn
Must learn by my being cut up and torn,
Kill, and dissect me, Love ; for this 40
Torture against thine own end is ;
Rack'd carcasses make ill anatomies.
L 22 1669, his face
SONGS AND SONNETS. 37
CONFINED LOVE.
Some man unworthy to be possessor Of old or new love, himself being false or weak,
Thought his pain and shame would be lesser, If on womankind he might his anger wreak ; And thence a law did grow, One might but one man know j But are other creatures so ?
Are sun, moon, or stars by law forbidden To smile where they list, or lend away their light ? Are birds divorced or are they chidden 10
If they leave their mate, or lie abroad a night ? Beasts do no jointures lose Though they new lovers choose ; But we are made worse than those.
"Whoe'er rigg'd fair ships to lie in harbours, And not to seek lands, or not to deal with all ?
Or built fair houses, set trees, and arbours, Only to lock up, or else to let them fall ? Good is not good, unless
A thousand it possess, 20
But doth waste with greediness.
L 3. 1669, this pain 1. 9. 1669, bend away
1. II. 1650, meate, 1669, meat 1. 11. 1669, all night 1. 15. So 1669 : 1633, ship
1. 16. 1669, to seek new lands 1. 17. 1650, build
38 DONNE'S POEMS.
THE DREAM.
Dear love, for nothing less than thee Would I have broke this happy dream ;
It was a theme For reason, much too strong for fantasy. Therefore thou waked'st me wisely ; yet My dream thou brokest not, but continued'st it. Thou art so true that thoughts of thee suffice To make dreams truths, and fables histories ; Enter these arms, for since thou thought'st it best, Not to dream all my dream, let's act the rest. lo
As lightning, or a taper's light.
Thine eyes, and not thy noise waked me ;
Yet I thought thee — For thou lovest truth — an angel, at first sight ; But when I saw thou saw'st my heart. And knew'st my thoughts beyond an angel's art. When thou knew'st what I dreamt, when thou knew'st
when Excess of joy would wake me, and camest then, I must confess, it could not choose but be Profane, to think thee any thing but thee. 20
1. 6. 1669, break' st . . . conthtuest 1. 7. So 1635 ; 1633, so truth L 17. 1669, then thou knew'st
SONGS AND SONNETS, ^
Coming and staying show'd thee, thee, But rising makes me doubt, that now
Thou art not thou. That love is weak where fear's as strong as he ; 'Tis not all spirit, pure and brave. If mixture it of fear, shame, honour have ; Perchance as torches, which must ready be, Men light and put out, so thou deal'st with me ; Thou camest to kindle, go'st to come ; then I Will dream that hope again, but else would die. 30
A VALEDICTION OF WEEPING.
Let me pour forth My tears before thy face, whilst I stay here, For thy face coins them, and thy stamp they bear, And by this mintage they are something worth.
For thus they be
Pregnant of thee ; Fruits of much grief they are, emblems of more ; When a tear falls, that thou fall'st which it bore ; So thou and I are nothing then, when on a divers shore.
1. 24. i66g, fears are 1. 29. 1669, com'st
40 DONNE'S POEMS.
On a round ball lo
A. workman, that hath copies by, can lay An Europe, Afric, and an Asia, And quickly make that, which was nothing, all.
So doth each tear.
Which thee doth wear, A globe, yea world, by that imprecision grow. Till thy tears mix'd with mine do overflow This world, by waters sent from thee, my heaven dissolved so.
O ! more than moon, Draw not up seas to drown me in thy sphere ; 20
Weep me not dead, in thine arms, but forbear To teach the sea, what it may do too soon ;
Let not the wind
Example find To do me more harm than it purposeth : Since thou and I sigh one another's breath. Whoe'er sighs most is cruellest, and hastes the other's death.
1. 20. 1669, ihy seas
SONGS AND SONNETS. 41
love's alchemy.
Some that have deeper digg'd love's mine than I, Say, where his centric happiness doth lie.
I have loved, and got, and told, But should I love, get, tell, till I were old, I should not find that hidden mystery.
O ! 'tis imposture all ; And as no chemic yet th' elixir got,
But glorifies his pregnant pot,
If by the way to him befall Some odoriferous thing, or medicinal, lo
So, lovers dream a rich and long delight, But get a winter-seeming summer's night.
Our ease, our thrift, our honour, and our day, Shall we for this vain bubble's shadow pay?
Ends love in this, that my man Can be as happy as I can, if he can Endure the short scorn of a bridegroom's play ?
That loving wretch that swears, 'Tis not the bodies marry, but the minds.
Which he in her angelic finds, 20
Would swear as justly, that he hears, In that day's rude hoarse minstrelsy, the spheres. Hope not for mind in women ; at their best. Sweetness and wit they are, but mummy, possess'd.
4a DONNE'S POEMS.
THE CURSE,
Whoever gnesses, thinks, or dreams, he knows Who is my mistress, wither by this curse ; Him, only for his purse, May some dull whore to love dispose, And then yield unto all that are his foes ;
May he be scorn'd by one, whom all else scorn, Forswear to others, what to her he hath sworn, With fear of missing, shame of getting, torn.
Madness his sorrow, gout his cramps, may he Make, by but thinking who hath made them such ; lO And may he feel no touch Of conscience, but of fame, and be Anguish'd, not that 'twas sin, but that 'twas she ; Or may he for her virtue reverence One that hates him only for impotence. And equal traitors be she and his sense.
1. 3. So 1669 ; 1633, His only, and only his purse
1. 4. So 1669 ; 1633, dull heart
1. 5. So 1669 ; 1633, she yield then to
1. 9. So 1669 ; 1633, a-amp
1. 10. So 1669 ; 1633, him such
IL 14-17- So 1635; 1633,
//; early and long scarceness may he rot, For land which had been his, if he had not Himself incest uously an heir begot.
SONGS AND SONNETS, 43
May he dream treason, and believe that he Meant to perform it, and confess, and die, And no record tell why j His sons, which none of his may be, 20
Inherit nothing but his infamy ;
Or may he so long parasites have fed,
That he would fain be theirs whom he hath bred,
And at the last be circumcised for bread.
The venom of all stepdames, gamesters' gall, What tyrants and their subjects interwish,
What plants, mine, beasts, fowl, fish, Can contribute, all ill, which all Prophets or poets spake, and all which shall
Be annex'd in schedules unto this by me, 30
Fall on that man ; for if it be a she Nature beforehand hath out-cursed me.
THE MESSAGE.
Send home my long stray'd eyes to me, Which, O ! too long have dwelt on thee ; Yet since there they have leam'd such ill, Such forced fashions. And false passions. That they be Made by thee Fit for no good sight, keep them still.
L 3. 1669, But if
44 DONNKS POEMS.
Send home my harmless heart again, Which no unworthy thought could stain ; lO But if it be taught by thine To make jestings Of pretestings,
And break both
Word and oath,
Keep it, for then 'tis none of mine.
Yet send me back my heart and eyes, That I may know, and see thy lies, And may laugh and joy, when thou
Art in anguish 20
And dost languish For some one That will none, Or prove as false as thou art now.
1. i6. 1669, Keep it still, 'lis h 24, 1669, dost now
SONGS AND SONNETS, 45
A NOCTTJRNAL UPON ST. LUCY's DAY, BEING THE SHORTEST DAY.
'Tis the year's midnight, and it is the day's, Lucy's, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks ; The sun is spent, and now his flasks Send forth light squibs, no constant rays ; The world's whole sap is sunk ; The general balm th' hydroptic earth hath drunk, Whither, as to the bed's-feet, life is shrunk, Dead and interr'd ; yet all these seem to laugh, Compared with me, who am their epitaph.
Study m.e then, you who shall lovers be 10
At the next world, that is, at the next spring j For I am a very dead thing, In whom Love wrought new alchemy. For his art did express A quintessence even from nothingness. From dull privations, and lean emptiness ; He ruin'd me, and I am re-begot Of absence, darkness, death — things which are not.
1. 12. So 163s ; 1633, every dead thing
46 DONNKS POEMS.
All others, from all things, draw all that's good, Life, soul, form, spirit, whence they being have ; 20
I, by Love's limbec, am the grave
Of all, that's nothing. Oft a flood Have we two wept, and so Drown'd the whole world, us two ; oft did we grow, To be two chaoses, when we did show Care to aught else ; and often absences Withdrew our souls, and made us carcasses.
But I am by her death — which word wrongs her — Of the first nothing the elixir grown ;
Were I a man, that I were one 30
I needs must know j I should prefer, If I were any beast. Some ends, some means ; yea plants, yea stones detest, And love ; all, all some properties invest. If I an ordinary nothing were, As shadow, a light, and body must be here.
But I am none ; nor will my sun renew. You lovers, for whose sake the lesser sun
At this time to the Goat is run
To fetch new lust, and give it you, 40
Enjoy your summer all. Since she enjoys her long night's festival. Let me prepare towards her, and let me call This hour her vigil, and her eve, since this Both the year's and the day's deep midnight is.
SONGS AND SONNETS. 47
WITCHCRAFT BY A PICTURE.
I FIX mine eye on thine, and there
Pity my picture burning in thine eye ; My picture drown'd in a transparent tear,
When I look lower I espy ; Hadst thou the wicked skill By pictures made and marr'd, to kill, How many ways mightst thou perform thy will?
But now I've drunk thy sweet salt tears, And though thou pour more, I'll depart ;
My picture vanished, vanish all fears lo
That I can be endamaged by that art ; Though thou retain of me
One picture more, yet that will be,
Being in thine own heart, from all malice free.
THE BAIT.
Come live with me, and be my love, And we will some new pleasures prove Of golden sands, and crystal brooks, With silken lines and silver hooks.
L 9, 1669, Although
1. 10. So 1635 ; 1633, My picture vanish' d, vanish fears 1669, My picture vanish, vanish fears
48 DONNE'S POEMS.
There will the river whisp'ring run Warm'd by thy eyes, more than the sun ; And there th' enamour'd fish will stay, Begging themselves they may betray.
When thou wilt swim in that live bath, Each fish, which eveiy channel hath, lo
Will amorously to thee swim, Gladder to catch thee, than thou him.
If thou, to be so seen, be'st loth, By sun or moon, thou dark'nest both, And if myself have leave to see, I need not their light, having thee.
Let others freeze with angling reeds.
And cut their legs with shells and weeds.
Or treacherously poor fish beset,
With strangling snare, or windowy net. 20
Let coarse bold hands from slimy nest The bedded fish in banks out-wrest ; Or curious traitors, sleeve-silk flies. Bewitch poor fishes' wand'ring eyes.
1. 6. 1669, thine 1. 7. Walton, enayjielled
1. 7. 1669, flay
1. II. Walton. Most amorously to thee will swim
1. 15. Walton, mine eyes
1. 18. So 1635, Walton ; 1633, which shells
1. 20. 1669, winding 1. 20. Walton, snares
1. 23. Walton, Let
L 23. So 1635 ; 1633, sleroe sick
1. 24. Walton, To witch poor wand ring fishes eyes
SONGS AND SONNETS. 49
For thee, thou need'st no such deceit, For thou thyself art thine own bait : That fish, that is not catch'd thereby, Alas ! is wiser far than I.
THE APPARITION.
When by thy scorn, O murd'ress, I am dead,
And that thou think 'st thee free
From all solicitation from me,
Then shall my ghost come to thy bed.
And thee, feign'd vestal, in worse arms shall see :
Then thy sick taper will begin to wink,
And he, whose thou art then, being tired before,
Will, if thou stir, or pinch to wake him, think
Thou call'st for more, And, in false sleep, will from thee shrink : 10
And then, poor aspen wretch, neglected thou Bathed in a cold quicksilver sweat wilt lie
A verier ghost than I. What I will say, I will not tell thee now, Lest that preserve thee ; and since my love is spent, I'd rather thou shouldst painfully repent. Than by my threatenings rest still innocent.
1. 28. Walton, Is wiser far, alas 1. 2. i66g, thoushalt think 1. 7. 1669 omits then
1. 10. 1635, in false sleep, from tJiee. 1669, in a false
VOL, I. 4
50 DONNE'S POEMS.
THE BROKEN HEART.
He is stark mad, wlioevcx- says,
That he hath been in love an hour, Yet not that love so soon decays,
But that it can ten in less space devour ; Wlio will believe me, if I swear That I have had the plague a year ?
Who would not laugh at me, if I should say
I saw a flash of powder burn a day ?
Ah, what a trifle is a heart,
If once into love's hands it come ! 10
All other griefs allow a part
To other griefs, and ask themselves but some ; They come to us, but us love draws ; He swallows us and never chaws ;
By him, as by chain'd shot, whole ranks do die ;
He is the tyrant pilce, our hearts the fry.
If 'twere not so, what did become
Of my heart when I first saw thee ? I brought a heart into the room,
But from the room I carried none with me. 20 If it had gone to thee, I know Mine would have taught thine heart to show
More pity unto me ; but Love, alas !
At one first blow did shiver it as glass.
1. 8. So 1635 ; xS-^"^, flask 1. 16. 1669, and we the fry
SONGS AND SONNETS. 51
Yet nothing can to nothing fall,
Nor any place be empty quite ; Therefore I think my breast hath all
Those pieces still, though they be not unite ; And now, as broken glasses show A hundred lesser faces, so 30
My rags of heart can like, wish, and adore,
But after one such love, can love no more.
'^ A VALEDICTION FORBIDDING MOURNING.
As virtuous men pass mildly away.
And whisper to their souls to go, Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
" Now his breath goes," and some say, " No."
So let us melt, and make no noise, No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;
'Twere profanation of our joys To tell the laity our love.
Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears ;
Men reckon what it did, and meant ; lo
But trepidation of the spheres.
Though greater far, is innocent.
. 1. 4. So 1669 ; 1633. 7'he breath goes no7o
52 DONNE'S POEMS,
Dull sublunary lovers' love — Whose soul is sense— cannot admit
Of absence, 'cause it doth remove The thing which elemented it.
But we by a love so far refined,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care less eyes, lips and hands to miss. 20
Our two souls therefore, which are one, Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion, Like gold to airy thinness beat.
If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two ; Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th' other do.
And though it in the centre sit,
Yet, when the other far doth roam, 30
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.
Such wilt thou be to me, who must, Like th' other foot, obliquely ran ;
Thy firmness makes my circle just, And makes me end where I begun.
1, 15. So 1669 ; 1633, Absence, because
1. 16. So 1669 ; 1633, Those things
1. 17, So 1669 ; 1633, so much