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"O my black soul! Now thou art summoned
By sickness, death's herald, and champion;
Thou art like a pilgrim, which abroad hath done
Treason,"
John Donne (1572-1631), British poet. O My Black Soul! (Holy Sonnets) (l. 1-3). . .
The Complete English Poems [John Donne]. A. J. Smith, ed. (1971) Penguin Books. |
"I conjure thee, and all the oaths which I
And thou have sworn to seal joint constancy,
Here I unswear, and overswear them thus,
Thou shalt not love by ways so dangerous.
Temper, O fair Love, love's impetuous rage,
Be my true Mistress still, not my feign'd Page;
I'll go, and, by thy kind leave, leave behind
Thee, only worthy to nurse in my mind
Thirst to come back;"
John Donne (1572-1631), British poet. On His Mistress (Elegies). . .
The Complete English Poems [John Donne]. A. J. Smith, ed. (1971) Penguin Books. |
"By our first strange and fatal interview,"
John Donne (1572-1631), British poet. On His Mistress (Elegies). . .
The Complete English Poems [John Donne]. A. J. Smith, ed. (1971) Penguin Books. |
"So doth, so is Religion; and this blind-
ness too much light breeds; but unmoved thou
Of force must one, and forc'd but one allow;
And the right; ask thy father which is she,
let him ask his; though truth and falsehood be
Near twins, yet truth a little elder is;"
John Donne (1572-1631), British poet. Satires. . .
The Complete English Poems [John Donne]. A. J. Smith, ed. (1971) Penguin Books. |
"On a huge hill,
Cragged, and steep, Truth stands, and he that will
Reach her, about must, and about must go;
And what the hill's suddenness resists, win so;
Yet strive so, that before age, death's twilight,
Thy Soul rest, for none can work in that night.
To will, implies delay, therefore now do:
Hard deeds, the body's pains; hard knowledge too
The mind's endeavours reach, and mysteries
Are like the Sun, dazzling, yet plain to all eyes."
John Donne (1572-1631), British poet. Satires. . .
The Complete English Poems [John Donne]. A. J. Smith, ed. (1971) Penguin Books. |
"Man is not only a contributory creature, but a total creature; he does not only make one, but he is all; he is not a piece of the world, but the world itself; and next to the glory of God, the reason why there is a world."
John Donne (c. 1572-1631), British divine, metaphysical poet. Sermons, no. 35 (1625). |
"Betray, kind husband, Thy spouse to our sights,
And let mine amorous soul court Thy mild Dove,
Who is most true and pleasing to Thee then
When she is embraced and open to most men."
John Donne (1572-1631), British poet. Show me, dear Christ, Thy spouse (Holy Sonnets) (l. 11-14). . .
The Complete English Poems [John Donne]. A. J. Smith, ed. (1971) Penguin Books. |
"Since she whom I loved hath paid her last debt
To Nature, and to hers, and my good is dead,
And her soul early into heaven ravished,
Wholly on heavenly things my mind is set."
John Donne (1572-1631), British poet. Since she whom I loved (Holy Sonnets) (l. 1-4). . .
The Complete English Poems [John Donne]. A. J. Smith, ed. (1971) Penguin Books. |
"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 her mermaids singing,
Or to keep off envy's stinging,
And find
What wind
Serves to advance an honest mind."
John Donne (c. 1572-1631), British divine, metaphysical poet. repr. In Complete Poetry and Selected Prose, ed. John Hayward (1929). Song: Go, and Catch a Falling Star, Songs and Sonnets (1633). |
"God clothed himself in vile man's flesh, that so
He might be weak enough to suffer woe."
John Donne (1572-1631), British poet. Spit in my face, you Jews (Holy Sonnets) (l. 13-14). . .
The Complete English Poems [John Donne]. A. J. Smith, ed. (1971) Penguin Books. |
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