John Donne Selected Poems-4
BREAK OF DAY.
Being still with you, the muscle, sinew, and vein
The day breaks not, it is my heart,
The sun it self, which makes time, as they pass,
But glass and lines must be
All other things to their destruction draw,
Are unchangeable firmament.
This learning be, for a scratchd name to teach,
For dying men talk often so.
Or if, when thou, the worlds soul, gost,
Tis much that glass should be
[ANOTHER OF THE SAME.]
That thee I shall not celebrate,
So shall all times find me the same ;
Must leave at last in death these eyes and ears,
Inpute this idle talk, to that I go,
VIII.
He which hath business, and makes love, doth do
Here you see me, and I am you.
It stay, tis but thy carcase then ;
When I remember thou wast one.
Takes limbs of flesh, and else could nothing do,
Let us love nobly, and live, and add again
But all such rules loves magic can undo ;
Running it never runs from us away,
For I had rather owner be
The showers and tempests can outwash
MY name engraved herein
When these stars have supremacy.
His letter at thy pillow hath laid,
Near death inflicts this lethargy,
Or think this ragged bony name九*九*藏*书*网 to be
The light that shines comes from thine eyes ;
And so more steadily to have gone,
Must business thee from hence remove?
And recompact my scatterd body so,
This no to-morrow hath, nor yesterday ;
That being well I fain would stay,
As much more loving, as more sad,
Oft fed with true oaths, and with sweet salt tears ;
Did we lie down because twas night?
All women so, when thou art gone,
I saw I had loves pinnace overfraught ;
It as a given deaths head keep,
So since this name was cut,
When bodies to their graves, souls from their graves remove.
O, wilt thou therefore rise from me?
Can be such kings, nor of such subjects be.
The whole world vapours with thy breath.
That it assume thy body, I allow,
Lovers mortality to preach ;
Thy beauty, and all parts, which are thee,
To fuel such a fever long.
So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame
Though it in thee cannot perséver ;
Shall burn this world, had none the wit
II.
And fix itself in thy lip, eye, and brow.
More subtle than the parent is
And when thy melted maid,
But corrupt worms, the worthiest men.
In it offendst my Genius.
Is much too much ; some fitter must九九藏书 be sought ;
Extreme, and scattering bright, can love inhere ;
When thou and I first one another saw.
That I would not from him, that had them, go.
IX.
The rafters of my body, bone,
I understand, and grow, and see—
AIR AND ANGELS.
Doth contribute my firmness to this glass,
Nor long bear this torturing wrong,
And unaware to me shalt write.
When thy inconsiderate hand
—Who prince enough in one another be—
Before I knew thy face or name ;
That this her feaver might be it?
But truly keeps his first, last, everlasting day.
All glory of honours, beauties, wits,
Twixt womens love, and mens, will ever be.
Twill make thee ; and thou shouldst, till I return,
X.
To an overt act and that thou write again,
The fairest woman, but thy ghost,
V.
To look on one, whose wit or land
Here upon earth were kings, and none but we
O wrangling schools, that search what fire
Thy every hair for love to work upon
And clear reflects thee to thine eye.
My ruinous anatomy.
Since I die daily, daily mourn.
As all-confessing, and through-shine as I ;
Alas ! as well as other princes, we
Why should we rise because tis light?
And this99lib•net I murmur in my sleep ;
A FEVER.
And perish in their infancy.
When love and grief their exaltation had,
Treason to us, except one of us two.
If it could speak as well as spy,
Flings open this casement, with my trembling name,
So thy love may be my loves sphere ;
Of thee one hour, than all else ever.
Which ever since that charm hath been
You this entireness better may fulfill,
O ! thats the worst disease of love,
Of air, not pure as it, yet pure doth wear,
With wares which would sink admiration,
Who is so safe as we? where none can do
XI.
Till my return repair
Love, which in spite of darkness brought us hither,
Yet twas of my mind, seizing thee,
Into thy fancy from the pane ;
Disputed it, and tamed thy rage,
Whose matter in thee is soon spent ;
Whilst thus to ballast love I thought,
TIS true, tis day ; what though it be?
And yet she cannot waste by this,
Then, as all my souls be
True and false fears let us refrain,
Such wrong, as when a married man doth woo.
TWICE or thrice had I loved thee,
ALL kings, and all their favourites,
But when thou from this world wilt go,
Still when, to where thou wert, I cam九九藏书e,
These burning fits but meteors be,
No means our firm substantial love to keep ;
O ! DO not die, for I shall hate
And therefore what thou wert, and who,
VII.
For, nor in nothing, nor in things
Is elder by a year now than it was
Light hath no tongue, but is all eye ;
So, in forgetting thou remembrest right,
STAY, O sweet, and do not rise ;
Or if too hard and deep
This or a love increasèd there above,
Unto this knowledge to aspire,
Emparadised in you—in whom alone
And if this treason go
To write threescore ; this is the second of our reign.
May my name step in, and hide his.
But yet thou canst not die, I know ;
Into such characters as gravèd be
In superscribing, this name flow
To leave this world behind, is death ;
Angels affect us oft, and worshippd be.
If one might, death were no divorce.
Should in despite of light keep us together.
IV.
Some lovely glorious nothing did I see.
Two graves must hide thine and my corse ;
VI.
The poor, the foul, the false, love can
For more corruption needful is,
I bid Love ask, and now
Who have the pattern with you still.
And that I loved my heart and honour so
But souls where nothing dwells but love
And then we shall be throughly blest ;
Which tile this house, will come again.
A VALEDICTION OF MY NAME, IN THE WINDOW.
New battery to thy heart may frame,
III.
As all the virtuous powers which are
Just such disparity
Stay, or else my joys will die,
But since my soul, whose child love is,
Then as an angel face and wings
Years and years unto years, till we attain
THE ANNIVERSARY.
I.
Because that you and I must part.
Corrupted by thy lovers gold and page,
No door gainst this names influence shut.
Tis more that it shows thee to thee,
—All other thoughts being inmates—then shall prove
As is twixt airs and angels purity,
This were the worst that it could say,
Fixd in the stars are said to flow
Then think this name alive, and that thou thus
As no one point, nor dash,
Only our love hath no decay ;
Which are but accessories to this name,
The diamonds of either rock.
Thine eye will give it price enough, to mock
As hard, as that which graved it was ;
Love must not be, but take a body too ;
But now no more than all the rest.
And thou beginst to thaw towards him, for this,
Admit, but not the busied man.