I. 14, 1669, have 1. 18. 1669, no good capacity

6o DONNE'S POEMS.
My faith I give to Roman Catholics ; All my good works unto the Schismatics 20
Of Amsterdam ; my best civility And courtship to an University ; My modesty I give to soldiers bare ; My patience let gamesters share : Thou, Love, taught'st me, by making me Love her that holds my love disparity, Only to give to those that count my gifts indignity.
I give my reputation to those Which were my friends ; mine industry to foes ; To schoolmen I bequeath my doubtfulness ; 30 My sickness to physicians, or excess ; To nature all that I in rhyme have writ ; And to my company my wit : Thou, Love, by making me adore Her, who begot this love in me before, Taught'st me to make, as though I gave, when I dc but restore.
To him for whom the passing-bell next tolls, I give my physic books ; my written rolls Of moral counsels I to Bedlam give ; My brazen medals unto them which live 40
In want of bread ; to them which pass among All foreigners, mine English tongue : Thou, Love, by making me love one "Who thinks her friendship a fit portion For younger lovers, dost my gifts thus disproportion.
L 36. So 1635 ; 1633, did but
SONGS AND SONNETS. 6l
Therefore I'll give no more, but I'll undo The world by dying, because love dies too. Then all your beauties will be no more worth Than gold in mines, where none doth draw it forth ; And all your graces no more use shall have, 5^ Than a sun-dial in a grave :
Thou, Love, taught'st me by making me Love her who doth neglect both me and thee. To invent, and practise this one way, to annihilate
all three.
THE FUNERAL.
Whoever comes to shroud me, do not harm,
Nor question much, That subtle wreath of hair, which crowns my arm ; The mystery, the sign you must not touch ;
For 'tis my outward soul, Viceroy to that, which unto heaven being gone,
Will leave this to control And keep these limbs, her provinces, from dissolu- tion.
For if the sinewy thread my brain lets fall
Through every part lO
Can tie those parts, and make me one of all. Those hairs which upward grew, and strength and art
1. 54, 1669, to annihilate thee 1, 3. 1669, about mine arm 1. 12. 1650, grow
62 DONNE'S POEMS.
Have from a better brain, Can better do 't ; except she meant that I
By this should know my pain, As prisoners then are manacled, when they're con- demn'd to die.
Whate'er she meant by it, bury it with me,
For since I am Love's martyr, it might breed idolatry, If into other hands these relics came. 20
As 'twas humility To afford to it all that a soul can do,
So 'tis some bravery, That since you would have none of me, 1 bury some of you.
SONGS AND SONNETS. 63
/^ THE BLOSSOM.
Little think'st thou, poor flower,
Whom I've watch'd six or seven days, And seen thy birth, and seen what every hour Gave to thy growth, thee to this height to raise, And now dost laugh and triumph on this bough,
Little think'st thou, That it will freeze anon, and that I shall To-morrow find thee fallen, or not at all.
Little think'st thou, poor heart,
That labourest yet to nestle thee, 10
And think'st by hovering here to get a part In a forbidden or forbidding tree, And hopest her stiffness by long siege to bow,
Little think'st thou. That thou to-morrow, ere that sun doth wake, Must with this sun and me a journey take.
But thou which lovest to be
Subtle to plague thyself, wilt sayj Alas ! if you must go, what's that to me ? Here lies my business, and here I will stay ; 20
You go to friends, whose love and means present
Various content To your eyes, ears, and taste, and every part ; If then your body go, what need your heart ?
1. 10. So 1635 ; 1633, labours 1. 15. 1635, the sun
64 DONNE S POEMS.
Well then, stay here ; but know,
When thou hast stay'd and done thy most,
A naked thinking heart, that makes no show,
Is to a woman but a kind of ghost.
How shall she know my heart ; or having none,
Know thee for one ? 30
Practice may make her know some other part j
But take my word, she doth not know a heart.
Meet me at London, then, Twenty days hence, and thou shalt see Me fresher, and more 5at, by being with men, Than if I had stay'd still with her and thee. For God's sake, if you can, be you so too ;
I will give you There to another friend, whom we shall find As glad to have my body as my mind. 40
THE PRIMROSE, BEING AT MONTGOMERY CASTLE UPON THE HILL, ON WHICH IT IS SITUATE.
Upon this Primrose hill. Where, if heaven would distil A shower of rain, each several drop might go To his own primrose, and grow manna so ; And where their form, and their infinity Make a terrestrial galaxy, As the small stars do in the sky ; I walk to find a true love ; and I see That 'tis not a mere woman, that is she, But must or more or less than woman be lo
SONGS AND SONNETS. 6$
Yet know I not, which flower
I wish ; a six, or four ; For should my true-love less than woman be, She were scarce anything ; and then, should she Be more than woman, she would get above
All thought of sex, and think to move
My heart to study her, and not to love. Both these were monsters ; since there must reside Falsehood in woman, I could more abide, She were by art, than nature falsified. 20
Live, primrose, then, and thrive
With thy true number five ; And, woman, whom this flower doth represent, With this mysterious number be content ; Ten is the farthest number ; if half ten
Belongs unto each woman, then
Each woman may take half us men ; Or — if this will not serve their turn — since all Numbers are odd, or even, and they fall First into five, women may take us all. 30
1. 28. 1650, i/ie turn I. 29. 1635, since they fall
1. 30. So 1635 ; 1633, this five
VOL. f.
66 DONNE'S POEMS,
THE RELIC.
When my grave is broke up again Some second guest to entertain, — For graves have learn'd that woman-head, To be to more than one a bed — And he that digs it, spies I A bracelet of bright hair about the bone, Will not he let us alone, And think that there a loving couple lies, Who thought that this device might be some way To make their souls at the last busy day lo
Meet at this grave, and make a little stay ?
If this fall in a time, or land, Where mass-devotion doth command, Then he that digs us up will bring Us to the bishop or the king, To make us relics ; then Thou shalt be a Mary Magdalen, and I
A something else thereby ; All women shall adore us, and some men. And, since at such time miracles are sought, 20
I would have that age by this paper taught What miracles we harmless lovers wrought.
a
1. 13. So 1669 ; 1633, mis-devotion 1. 15. So 1669 ; 1633, and the king
SONGS AND SONNETS. 67
First we loved well and faithfully, Yet knew not what we loved, nor why ; Difference of sex we never knew, No more than guardian angels do ; Coming and going we Perchance might kiss, but not between those meals ; Our hands ne'er touch'd the seals. Which nature, injured by late law, sets free. 30 These miracles we did ; but now alas ! All measure, and all language, I should pass, Should I tell what a miracle she was.
THE DAMP.
When I am dead, and doctors know not why,
And my friends' curiosity Will have me cut up to survey each part, When they shall find your picture in my heart, You think a sudden damp of love Will thorough all their senses move. And work on them as me, and so prefer Your murder to the name of massacre,
1. 25. So 1635 ; 1633, 720 more we knew
1. 26. So 1635 ; 1633, Than our
1. 28. 1669, yet betwee?t 1. 30. 1669, set free
1. 4. 1669, And
68 DONNE S POEMS.
Poor victories ; but if you dare be brave,
And pleasure in your conquest have, lO First kill th' enormous giant, your Disdain ; And let th' enchantress Honour, next be slain ;
And like a Goth or Vandal rise.
Deface records and histories Of your own arts and triumphs over men, And without such advantage kill me then,
For I could muster up, as well as you.
My giants, and my witches too,
^Vhich are vast Constancy and Secretness ;
But these I neither look for nor profess ; 20
Kill me as woman, let me die As a mere man ; do you but try
Your passive valour, and you shall find then,
Naked you have odds enough of any man.
1. 10. 1669, the conquest
1. 24. So 1635 ; 1633, In thai
SONGS AND SONNETS. 69
THE DISSOLUTION.
She's dead ; and all which die To their first elements resolve ; And we were mutual elements to us, And made of one another. My body then doth hers involve, And those things whereof I consist hereby In me abundant grow, and burdenous, And nourish not, but smother. My fire of passion, sighs of air. Water of tears, and earthy sad despair, 10
Which my materials be, But near worn out by love's security, She, to my loss, doth by her death repair. And I might live long wretched so, But that my fire doth with my fuel grow. Now, as those active kings Whose foreign conquest treasure brings. Receive more, and spend more, and soonest break, This — which I am amazed that I can speak —
This death, hath with my store 20
My use increased. And so my soul, more earnestly released, Will outstrip hers ; as bullets flown before A later bullet may o'ertake, the powder being more.
I 12. So 1635 ; 1633, ne'r
70 DONNE'S POEMS,
A JET RING SENT.
Thou art not so black as my heart, Nor half so brittle as her heart, thou art ; What wouldst thou say ? shall both our properties by
thee be spoke, — Nothing more endless, nothing sooner broke ?
Marriage rings are not of this stuff; Oh, why should ought less precious, or less tough, Figure our loves ? except in thy name thou have bid
it say ** — I'm cheap, and nought but fashion; fling me away. "
Yet stay with me since thou art come, Circle this finger's top, which didst her thumb ; lo Be justly proud, and gladly safe, that thou dost dwell
with me ; She that, O ! broke her faith, would soon break thee.
SONGS AND SONNETS. 71
NEGATIVE LOVE.
I NEVER stoop'd SO low, as they
Which on an eye, cheek, lip, can prey ; Seldom to them which soar no higher Than virtue, or the mind; to admire.
For sense and understanding may Know what gives fuel to their fire ;
My love, though silly, is more brave ;
For may I miss, whene'er I crave,
If I know yet what I would have.
If that be simply perfectest, 10
Which can by no way be express'd
But negatives, my love is so.
To all, which all love, I say no. If any who deciphers best,
What we know not — ourselves — can know. Let him teach me that nothing. This As yet my ease and comfort is. Though I speed not, I cannot miss,
L n. 1669, no means
72 DONNE'S POEMS.
THE PROHIBITION.
Take heed of loving me ; At least remember, I forbade it thee ; Not that I shall repair my unthrifty waste Of breath and blood, upon thy sighs and tears, By being to thee then what to me thou wast ; But so great joy our life at once outwears. Then, lest thy love by my death frustrate be, If thou love me, take heed of loving me.
Take heed of hating me. Or too much triumph in the victory ; lo
Not that I shall be mine own officer. And hate with hate again retaliate ; But thou wilt lose the style of conqueror, If I, thy conquest, perish by thy hate. Then, lest my being nothing lessen thee, If thou hate me, take heed of hating me.
Yet love and hate me too ; So these extremes shall ne'er their office do j Love me, that I may die the gentler way ; Hate me, because thy love's too great for me ; 20
1. 3. 1669, repay in unthrifty a waste
1. 5. So 1635 ; 1633, to me then that which thou wast
SONGS AND SONNETS. 73
Or let these two, themselves, not me, decay ; So shall I live thy stage, not triumph be. Lest thou thy love and hate, and me undo, C let me live, yet love and hate me too.
THE EXPIRATION.
So, so, break off this last lamenting kiss,
Which sucks two souls, and vapours both away ;
Turn, thou ghost, that way, and let me turn this. And let ourselves benight our happiest day.
We ask none leave to love ; nor will we owe Any so cheap a death as saying, ** Go."
Go ; and if that word have not quite killed thee, Ease me with death, by bidding me go too.
Or, if it have, let my word work on me, And a just office on a murderer do. lo
Except it be too late, to kill me so,
Being double dead, going, and bidding, "Go."
1. 22. So 1635 ; 1633, tky stay
1. 23. 1635, Then lest thou thy love hate and me thou undo ; 1669, Lest thou thy love, and hate, and me thou undi 1. 24. So 1635 ; 1633, O / love and hate ?. r. 1669, So go
74 DONNE'S POEMS.
THE COMPUTATION.
For my first twenty years, since yesterday,
I scarce believed thou couldst be gone away ; For forty more I fed on favours past,
And forty on hopes, that thou wouldst they might last ; Tears drown'd one hundred, and sighs blew out two ;
A thousand, I did neither think, nor do. Or not divide, all being one thought of you ;
Or in a thousand more, forgot that too. Yet call not this long life ; but think that I Am, by being dead, immortal ; can ghosts die ? lO
THE PARADOX.
No lover saith, I love, nor any other
Can judge a perfect lover ; He thinks that else none can or will agree,
That any loves but he ; I cannot say I loved, for who can say
He was kill'd yesterday. Love with excess of heat, more young than old,
Death kills with too much cold ;
1. I. 1669, Front
1. 3. 1669, And
L 7. So 1633, 1669 ; 1635, Or not deenid
1. 8. i66g, forget
SONGS AND SONNETS. 75
We die but once, and who loved last did die,
He that saith, twice, doth lie ; lO
For though he seem to move, and stir a while,
It doth the sense beguile. Such life is like the light which bideth yet
When the life's light is set, Or like the heat which fire in solid matter
Leaves behind, two hours after. Once I loved and died ; and am now become
Mine epitaph and tomb ; Here dead men speak their last, and so do I j
Love-slain, lo ! here I die. 20
SONG.
Soul's joy, now I am gone, And you alone, — Which cannot be, Since I must leave myself with thee, And carry thee with me — Yet when unto our eyes Absence denies Each other's sight. And makes to us a constant night,
When others change to light ; lO
O give no zvay to griefs But let belief
Of mutual love This wonder to the vulgar prove ^ Our bodies ^ not we move.
L I. Lansd. MS. 777, when
76 DONNE'S POEMS.
Let not thy wit beweep
Words but sense deep ; For when we miss By distance our hope's joining bliss,
Even then our souls shall kiss ; 20
Fools have no means to meet, But by their feet ; "Why should our clay Over our spirits so much sway, To tie us to that way ?
0 give no ivay to griefs dr'c.
FAREWELL TO LOVE.
Whilst yet to prove I thought there was some deity in love,
So did I reverence, and gave Worship ; as atheists at their dying hour Call, what they cannot name, an unknown power,
As ignorantly did I crave. Thus when Things not yet known are coveted by men.
Our desires give them fashion, and so As they wax lesser, fall, as they size, grow, 10
1. 17. Lansd. MS., 777, Woujids
1. 18. Lansd. MS., 777, while