I. 20. So 1C69 ; 1633, eyes, lips, hands

SONGS AND SONNETS. 53
THE ECSTACY.
Where, like a pillow on a bed,
A pregnant bank swell'd up, to rest The violet's reclining head,
Sat we two, one another's best.
Our hands were firmly cemented
By a fast balm, which thence did spring ;
Our eye-beams twisted, and did thread Our eyes upon one double string.
So to engraft our hands, as yet
Was all the means to make us one j jo
And pictures in our eyes to get
Was all our propagation.
As, 'twixt two equal armies, Fate
Suspends uncertain victory, ^ J/)
Our souls — which to advance their state, y^^. t
Were gone out — hung 'twixt her and me. '
And whilst our souls negotiate there,
We like sepulchral statues lay ; All day, the same our postures were,
And we said nothing, all the day. 20
L 3. 1669, declining 1. 4. 1669, on one another's breasts L 9. So 1635 ; 1633, to intergra/t L 15. 1635, our state
54 DONNE'S POEMS.
If any, so by love refined,
That he soul's language understood And by good love were grown all mind
Within convenient distance stood
He — though he knew not which soul spake, - - j\
Because both meant, both spake the same — ■■ , A/- ^T^
Might thence a new concoction take, U h/J^/^i^^\
And part far purer than he came. 4/?/ (t^
'i^rt
This ecstacy doth unperplex
(We said) and tell us what we love ; ' ''■^"'Z9,U^ L^y We see by this, it was not sex ; *' ^' ' ,
We see, we saw not, what did move : n i/^
■h
But as all several souls contain
Mixture of things they know not what. Love these mix'd souls doth mix again,
And makes both one, each this, and that.
A single violet transplant,
The strength, the colour, and the size — All which before was poor and scant —
Redoubles still, and multiplies. 40
When love with one another so
Interanimates two souls, That abler soul, which thence doth flow,
Defects of loneliness controls. " '^-^
1. 25. So 1635 ; 1633 knows not -^^ L 29. 1669, do 1. 44. 1669, loveliness
SONGS AND SONNETS. 55
We then, who are this new soul, know,
Of what we are composed, and made, .,vJ ^ /•'"
For th' atomies of which we grow ^\JLl''^f
Are souls, whom no change can invade. ^ ^^ XcJi
But, O alas ! so long, so far, — ^S/hMlA
Our bodies why do we forbear ? q / /^^^^7)t^
They are ours, though not we ; we are jMy^t 0
Th' intelligences, they the spheres.
We owe them thanks, because they thus
Did us, to us, at first convey, Yielded their senses' force to us,
Nor are dross to us, but allay.
On man heaven's influence works not so.
But that it first imprints the air ; For soul into the soul may flow,
Though it to body first repair. 60
As our blood labours to beget*
Spirits, as like souls as it can j Because such fingers need to knit
That subtle knot, which makes us man ;
So must pure lovers' souls descend
To affections, and to faculties. Which sense may reach and apprehend,
Else a great prince in prison lies.
1. 48. 1650, soul
56 DONNE'S POEMS,
To our bodies turn we then, that so
Weak men on love reveal'd may look ; 70
Love's mysteries in souls do grow,
But yet the body is his book.
And if some lover, such as we,
Have heard this dialogue of one, Let him still mark us, he shall see
Small change when we're to bodies gone.
love's deity.
I LONG to talk with some old lovers ghost. Who died before the god of love was born.
I cannot think that he, who then loved most, Sunk so low as to love one which did scorn.
But since this god produced a destiny.
And that vice-nature, custom, lets it be, I must love her that loves not me.
Sure, they which made him god, meant not so much, Nor he in his young godhead practised it.
But when an even flame two hearts did touch, 10
His office was indulgently to fit
Actives to passives. Correspondency
Only his subject was ; it cannot be Love, till I love her, who loves me.
1. 72. 1669, the book 1. 76. 1635, grown
1. 14. 1635, if I love, who loves not jue ; 1669, //// / love ker, that loves jne
SONGS AND SONNETS. 57
But every modern god will now extend
His vast prerogative as far as Jove. To rage, to lust, to write to, to commend,
All is the purlieu of the god of love. O ! were we waken'd by this tyranny To ungod this child again, it could not be 20
I should love her, who loves not me.
Rebel and atheist too, why murmur I,
As though I felt the worst that love could do ?
Love may make me leave loving, or might try A deeper plague, to make her love me too ;
Which, since she loves before, I'm loth to see.
Falsehood is worse than hate ; and that must be, If she whom I love, should love me.
love's diet.
To what a cumbersome unwieldiness
And burdenous corpulence my love had grown,
But that I did, to make it less,
And keep it in proportion. Give it a diet, made it feed upon That which love worst endures, discretion.
L 19. 1669, Were we not weakened
58 DONNE'S POEMS.
Above one sigh a day I ailovv'd him not,
Of which my fortune, and my faults had part ;
And if sometimes by stealth he got
A she sigh from my mistress' heart, lo
And thought to feast on that, I let him see 'Twas neither very sound, nor meant to me.
If he wrung from me a tear, I brined it so With scorn or shame, that him it nourish'd not ;
If he suck'd hers, I let him know
'Twas not a tear which he had got ; His drink was counterfeit, as was his meat ; For eyes, which roll towards all, weep not, but sweat.
Whatever he would dictate I writ that,
But burnt her letters when she writ to me ; 20
And if that favour made him fat,
I said, *' If any title be Convey 'd by this, ah ! what doth it avail, To be the fortieth name in an entail ? "
1. 18. i66g, Her eyes
1. 19. So 1633,1669; 1650, Whaie er might him dis- taste, I still writ that
1. 20. So 1635; 1633, my letters ; 1669, vty letters which she writ
1. 21. So 1635 ; 1633, that that
1. 24. 1669, fortieth man
SONGS AND SONNETS. 59
Thus I reclaim'd my buzzard love, to flie
At what, and when, and how, and where I choose.
Now negligent of sports I lie,
And now, as other falconers use, I spring a mistress, swear, write, sigh, and weep ; And the game kili'd, or lost, go talk or sleep. 30
THE WILL.
Before I sigh my last gasp, let me breathe. Great Love, some legacies ; I here bequeath Mine eyes to Argus, if mine eyes can see ; If they be blind, then. Love, I give them thee ; My tongue to Fame ; to ambassadors mine ears ; To women or the sea, my tears : Thou, Love, hast taught me heretofore By making me serve her who had twenty more, That I should give to none, but such as had too much before.
My constancy I to the planets give ; 10
My truth to them who at the court do live ; Mine ingenuity and openness, To Jesuits ; to buffoons my pensiveness ; My silence to any, who abroad hath been ; My money to a Capuchin : Thou, Love, taught'st me, by appointing me To love there, where no love received can be. Only to give to such as have an incapacity.
1. 27. 1635, sport 1. 30. So 1635 ; 1633, and sleep