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Hymn to God, My God, in my Sickness
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Since I am coming to that holy room,
Where, with thy choir of saints for evermore,
I shall be made thy music; as I come
I tune the instrument here at the door,
And what I must do then, think here before.
Whilst my physicians by their love are grown
Cosmographers, and I their map, who lie
Flat on this bed, that by them may be shown
That this is my south-west discovery,
Per fretum febris, by these straits to die,
I joy, that in these straits I see my west;
For, though their currents yield return to none,
What shall my west hurt me? As west and east
In all flat maps (and I am one) are one,
So death doth touch the resurrection.
Is the Pacific Sea my home? Or are
The eastern riches? Is Jerusalem?
Anyan, and Magellan, and Gibraltar,
All straits, and none but straits, are ways to them,
Whether where Japhet dwelt, or Cham, or Shem.
We think that Paradise and Calvary,
Christ's cross, and Adam's tree, stood in one place;
Look, Lord, and find both Adams met in me;
As the first Adam's sweat surrounds my face,
May the last Adam's blood my soul embrace.
So, in his purple wrapp'd, receive me, Lord;
By these his thorns, give me his other crown;
And as to others' souls I preach'd thy word,
Be this my text, my sermon to mine own:
"Therefore that he may raise, the Lord throws down."
John Donne
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Read poems about / on: purple, god, music, tree, joy, home, sea, death
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John Donne
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John Donne
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Gary Witt
(7/19/2009 2:32:00 PM) |
Just as a footnote, “per fretum febris” translates from the Latin, “by relying upon fever.”
The Strait of Anian supposedly ran along the west coast of North America. It was based on the incorrect assumption (current in the late 1500s) that California was an island separate and apart from the mainland. Leaving aside any potential prophecy contained there, the assumption arose from an inadequate exploration of the Gulf of Cortez.
Japhet, Cham (or “Ham”) and Shem were sons of Noah. They are said to have been the sources of the Japhetic (European) , Hamitic, and Semitic races respectively.
Donne was not only well-versed in Biblical text, he was also up on current events.
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John Donne
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