Chapter 6 John Donne Selected Poems-6
LET me pour forth
My tears before thy face, while I stay here,
For thy face coins them, and thy stamp they bear,
And by this age they are something worth.
For thus they be
Pregnant of thee;
Fruits of much grief they are, emblems of more ;
When a tear falls, that thou falls which it bore;
So thou and I are nothing then, when on a divers shore.
On a round ball
A workman, that hath copies by, can lay
An Europe, Africa, and an Asia,
And quickly make that, which was nothing, all.
So do each tear,
Which thee doth wear,
A globe, yea world, by that impression grow,
Till thy tears mixd with mine do overflow
This world, by waters sent from thee, my heaven dissolved so.
O ! more than moon,
Draw not up seas to drown me in thy sphere;
Weep me not dead, in thine arms, but forbear
To teach the sea, what it may do too soon;
Let not the wind
Example find
To do me more harm than it purposeth :
Since thou and I sigh one anothers breath,
Whoeer sighs most is cruelest, and hastes the others death.
Some that have deeper diggd loves mine than I,
Say, where his centric happiness doth lie.
I have loved, and got, and told,
But should I love, get, tell, till I were old,
I should not find that hidden mystery.
O ! tis imposture all ;
And as no chemic yet th elixir got,
But glorifies his pregnant pot,
If by the way to him befall
Some odoriferous thing, or medicinal,
So, lovers dream a rich and long delight,
But get a winter-seeming summers night.
Our ease, our thrift, our honor, and our day,
Shall we for this vain bubbles shadow pay?
Ends love in this, that my man
Can be as happy as I can, if he can
Endure the short scorn of a bridegrooms play?
That loving wretch that swears,
Tis not the bodies marry, but the minds,
Which he in her angelic finds,
Would swear as justly, that he hears,
In that days rude hoarse minstrelsy, the spheres.
Hope not for mind in women ; at their best,
Sweetness and wit they are, but mummy, possessed.
WHOEVER guesses, thinks, or dreams, he knows
Who is my mistress, wither by this curse;
Him, only for his purse
May some dull whore to love dispose,
And then yield unto all that are his foes;
May he be scornd by one, whom all else scorn,
Forswear to others, what to her he hath sworn,
With fear of missing, shame of getting, torn.
Madness his sorrow, gout his cramps, may he
Make, by but thinking who hath made him such ;
And may he feel no touch
Of conscience, but of fame, and be
Anguishd, not that twas sin, but that twas she ;
Or may he for her virtue reverence
One that hates him only for impotence,
And equal traits be she and his sense.
May he dream treason, and believe that he
Meant to perform it, and confesses, and die,
And no record tell why ;
His sons, which none of his may be,
Inherit nothing but his infamy;
Or may he so long parasites have fed,
That he would fain be theirs whom he hath bred,
And at the last be circumcised for bread.
The venom of all stepdames, gamers gall,
What tyrants and their subjects interwish,
What plants, mine, beasts, fowl, fish,
Can contribute, all ill, which all
Prophets or poets spake, and all which shall
Be annexed in schedules unto this by me,
Fall on that man ; For if it be a she
Nature beforehand hath out-cursed me.
SEND home my long strayed eyes to me,
Which, O ! too long have dwell on thee ;
Yet since there they have learned such ill,
Such forced fashions,
And false passions,
That they be
Made by thee
Fit for no good sight, keep them still.
Send home my harmless heart again,
Which no unworthy thought could stain;
Which if it be taught by thine
To make jestings
Of protesting,
And break both
Word and oath,
Keep it, for then tis none of mine.
Yet send me back my heart and eyes,
That I may know, and see thy lies,
And may laugh and joy, when thou
Art in anguish
And dost languish
For some one
That will none,
Or prove as false as thou art now.
TIS the years midnight, and it is the days,
Lucys, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks ;
The sun is spent, and now his flasks
Send forth light squibs, no constant rays;
The worlds whole sap is sunk;
The general balm th hydroptic earth hath drunk,
Whither, as to the beds-feet, life is shrunk,
Dead and interrd ; yet all these seem to laugh,
Compared with me, who am their epitaph.
Study me then, you who shall lovers be
At the next world, that is, at the next spring;
For I am every dead thing,
In whom Love wrought new alchemy.
For his art did express
A quintessence even from nothingness,
From dull privations, and lean emptiness;
He ruined me, and I am re-begot
Of absence, darkness, death—things which are not.
All others, from all things, draw all thats good,
Life, soul, form, spirit, whence they being have;
I, by Loves limbec, am the grave
Of all, thats nothing. Oft a flood
Have we two wept, and so
Drownd the whole world, us two ; oft did we grow,
To be two chaos, when we did show
Care to aught else ;
Withdrew our souls, and made us carcasses.
But I am by her death—which word wrongs her—
Of the first nothing the elixir grown;
Were I a man, that I were one
I needs must know ; I should prefer,
If I were any beast,
Some ends, some means ; yea plants, yea stones detest,
And love ; all, all some properties invest.
If I an ordinary nothing were,
As shadow, a light, and body must be here.
But I am none ; nor will my sun renew.
You lovers, for whose sake the lesser sun
At this time to the Goat is run
To fetch new luster, and give it to you,
Enjoy your summer all,
Since she enjoys her long nights festival.
Let me prepare towards her, and let me call
This hour her vigil, and her eve, since this
Both the years and the days deep midnight is.
I FIX mine eye on thine, and there
Pity my picture burning in thine eye ;
My picture drowned in a transparent tear,
When I look lower I espy;
Hadst thou the wicked skill
By pictures made and marrd, to kill,
How many ways mightst thou perform thy will?
But now I've drunk thy sweet salt tears,
And though thou pour more, I'll depart;
My picture vanished, vanished all fears
That I can be endamaged by that art ;
Though thou retain of me
One picture more, yet that will be,
Being in thine own heart, from all malice free.
COME live with me, and be my love,
And we will some new pleasures prove
Of golden sands, and crystal brooks,
With silken lines and silver hooks.
There will the river whisper run
Warm by thy eyes, more than the sun;
And there th enamourd fish will stay,
Begging themselves they may betray.
When thou wilt swim in that live bath,
Each fish, which every channel hath,
Will amorously to thee swim,
Gladder to catch thee, than thou him.
If thou, to be so seen, best loth,
By sun or moon, thou darkest both,
And if myself have leave to see,
I need not their light, having thee.
Let others freeze with angling reeds,
And cut their legs with shells and weeds,
Or treacherously poor fish beset,
With strangling snare, or windowy net.
Let coarse bold hands from slimy nest
The bedded fish in banks out-wrest;
Or curious traitors, sleeve-silk flies,
Bewitch poor fishes wandring eyes.
For thee, thou needst no such deceit,
For thou thyself art thine own bait :
That fish, that is not caught therefore,
Alas! is wiser far than I.
WHEN by thy scorn, O murdress, I am dead,
And that thou thinkt thee free
From all solicitation from me,
Then shall my ghost come to thy bed,
And thee, feigned vestal, in worse arms shall see :
Then thy sick taper will begin to wink,
And he, whose thou art then, being tired before,
Will, if thou stir, or pinch to wake him, think
Thou callst for more,
And, in false sleep, will from thee shrink :
And then, poor aspen wretch, neglected thou
Bathed in a cold quicksilver sweat wilt lie,
A verier ghost than I.
What I will say, I will not tell thee now,
Lest that preserve thee ; and since my love is spent,
Id rather thou should painfully repent,
Than by my threats rest still innocent.