Quotable quotes John Donne

                                   Quotable quotes John Donne

THE GOOD-MORROW

1. I WONDER by my troth, what thou and I

Did, till we loved ? were we not wean'd till then ?

But suck'd on country pleasures, childishly ?

Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers' den ?

2. If ever any beauty I did see,

Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee.

3. For love all love of other sights controls,

And makes one little room an everywhere.

4. Let us possess one world ; each hath one, and is one.

5. My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,

And true plain hearts do in the faces rest ;

6. Where can we find two better hemispheres

Without sharp north, without declining west ?

7. If our two loves be one, or thou and I

Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die.

SONG.

8. GO and catch a falling star,
9. Get with child a mandrake root,

10. Tell me where all past years are,

11. Ride ten thousand days and nights,

Till age snow white hairs on thee,

Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me,

All strange wonders that befell thee,

And swear,

12. No where

Lives a woman true and fair.

If thou find'st one, let me know,

Though at next door we might meet,

13. Though she were true, when you met her,

And last, till you write your letter,

Yet she

Will be

False, ere I come, to two, or three.

THE FLEA.

14. MARK but this flea, and mark in this,

How little that which thou deniest me is ;

It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee,

And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.

15. This flea is you and I, and this

Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.

WOMAN'S CONSTANCY.

16. NOW thou hast loved me one whole day,

To-morrow when thou leavest, what wilt thou say ?

Wilt thou then antedate some new-made vow ?

THE UNDERTAKING.

17. It were but madness now to impart

The skill of specular stone,

When he, which can have learn'd the art

To cut it, can find none.

18. If, as I have, you also do

Virtue in woman see,

And dare love that, and say so too,

And forget the He and She ;

THE SUN RISING.

19. BUSY old fool, unruly Sun,

Why dost thou thus,

Through windows, and through curtains, call on us ?

Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run ?

20. Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide

Late school-boys and sour prentices,

Go tell court-huntsmen that the king will ride,

Call country ants to harvest offices

21. Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,

Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.

22. I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink,

But that I would not lose her sight so long.

23. If her eyes have not blinded thine,

Look, and to-morrow late tell me,

Whether both th' Indias of spice and mine

Be where thou left'st them, or lie here with me.

24. Ask for those kings whom thou saw'st yesterday,

And thou shalt hear, "All here in one bed lay."

She's all states, and all princes I ;

Nothing else is ;

THE INDIFFERENT

25. I CAN love both fair and brown ;

26. I can love her, and her, and you, and you ;

I can love any, so she be not true.

Rob me, but bind me not, and let me go.

LOVE'S USURY.

27. If thine own honour, or my shame and pain,

Thou covet most, at that age thou shalt gain.

Do thy will then; then subject and degree

28. And fruit of love, Love, I submit to thee.

29. Spare me till then; I'll bear it, though she be

One that love me.

THE CANONIZATION.

30. FOR God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love ;

31. Alas ! alas ! who's injured by my love?

What merchant's ships have my sighs drown'd?

32. Who says my tears have overflow'd his ground?

33. Call's what you will, we are made such by love ;

Call her one, me another fly,

We're tapers too, and at our own cost die,

And we in us find th' eagle and the dove.

34. We can die by it, if not live by love,

LOVERS' INFINITENESS.

35. IF yet I have not all thy love,

Dear, I shall never have it all ;

36. And all my treasure, which should purchase thee,

Sighs, tears, and oaths, and letters I have spent ;

37. If then thy gift of love were partial,

That some to me, some should to others fall,

Dear, I shall never have thee all.

38. Or if then thou gavest me all,

All was but all, which thou hadst then ;

39. But if in thy heart since there be or shall

New love created be by other men,

Which have their stocks entire, and can in tears,

In sighs, in oaths, and letters, outbid me,

40. This new love may beget new fears,

For this love was not vow'd by thee.

41. And yet it was, thy gift being general ;

The ground, thy heart, is mine ; what ever shall

Grow there, dear, I should have it all.

42. Yet I would not have all yet.

He that hath all can have no more ;

And since my love doth every day admit

New growth, thou shouldst have new rewards in store ;

43. Thou canst not every day give me thy heart,

If thou canst give it, then thou never gavest it ;

44. Love's riddles are, that though thy heart depart,

It stays at home, and thou with losing savest it ;

45. But we will have a way more liberal,

Than changing hearts, to join them ; so we shall

be one, and one another's all.

SONG

46. SWEETEST love, I do not go,

For weariness of thee,

Nor in hope the world can show

A fitter love for me ;

47. When thou sigh'st, thou sigh'st not wind,

But sigh'st my soul away ;

48. When thou weep'st, unkindly kind,

My life's blood doth decay.

THE LEGACY.

49. WHEN last I died, and, dear, I die

As often as from thee I go,

Though it be but an hour ago

A FEVER.

• ! DO not die, for I shall hate
49. All women so, when thou art gone,

But yet thou canst not die, I know ;

51.   To leave this world behind, is death

But when thou from this world wilt go

52.  The whole world vapours with thy breath.

These burning fits but meteors be,

53.  Whose matter in thee is soon spent ;

Thy beauty, and all parts, which are thee,

Are unchangeable firmament.

AIR AND ANGELS.

54. TWICE or thrice had I loved thee,

Before I knew thy face or name ;

55. So thy love may be my love's sphere ;

Just such disparity

As is 'twixt air's and angels' purity,

'Twixt women's love, and men's, will ever be.

BREAK OF DAY.

56. STAY, O sweet, and do not rise ;

The light that shines comes from thine eyes ;

The day breaks not, it is my heart,

Because that you and I must part.

Stay, or else my joys will die,

And perish in their infancy.

THE ANNIVERSARY.

57. ALL kings, and all their favourites,

All glory of honours, beauties, wits,

58. The sun it self, which makes time, as they pass,

Is elder by a year now than it was

When thou and I first one another saw.

59. All other things to their destruction draw,

Only our love hath no decay ;

60. This no to-morrow hath, nor yesterday ;

Running it never runs from us away,

But truly keeps his first, last, everlasting day.

61. But souls where nothing dwells but love

62. Let us love nobly, and live, and add again

Years and years unto years, till we attain

To write threescore ; this is the second of our reign.

TWICKENHAM GARDEN.

63. BLASTED with sighs, and surrounded with tears,

Hither I come to seek the spring,

And at mine eyes, and at mine ears,

Receive such balms as else cure every thing

VALEDICTION TO HIS BOOK.

64. Study our manuscripts, those myriads

Of letters, which have past 'twixt thee and me ;

Thence write our annals, and in them will be

all whom love's subliming fire invades,

65. Here Love's divines—since all divinity

Is love or wonder—may find all they seek,

COMMUNITY.

GOOD we must love, and must hate ill,

66. For ill is ill, and good good still ;

67. If then at first wise Nature had

Made women either good or bad,

Then some wee might hate, and some choose ;

68. Changed loves are but changed sorts of meat ;

And when he hath the kernel eat,

Who doth not fling away the shell?

LOVE'S GROWTH.

69. I SCARCE believe my love to be so pure

As I had thought it was,

Because it doth endure

Vicissitude, and season, as the grass ;

70. Methinks I lied all winter, when I swore
71. My love was infinite, if spring make it more.

LOVE'S EXCHANGE.

72. LOVE, any devil else but you

Would for a given soul give something too.

73. I ask no dispensation now,

To falsify a tear, or sigh, or vow ;

74. Give me thy weakness, make me blind,

Both ways, as thou and thine, in eyes and mind ;

CONFINED LOVE.

75. Are sun, moon, or stars by law forbidden

To smile where they list, or lend away their light?

76. Are birds divorced or are they chidden

If they leave their mate, or lie abroad a night?

77. Beasts do no jointures lose

Though they new lovers choose ;

But we are made worse than those.

THE DREAM.

78. DEAR love, for nothing less than thee

Would I have broke this happy dream ;

79. As lightning, or a taper's light,

Thine eyes, and not thy noise waked me ;

80. Thou camest to kindle, go'st to come ; then I

Will dream that hope again, but else would die.

A VALEDICTION OF WEEPING.

81. LET me pour forth

My tears before thy face, whilst I stay here,

For thy face coins them, and thy stamp they bear,

And by this mintage they are something worth.

• 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 ;

LOVE'S ALCHEMY

82. Some that have deeper digg'd love's mine than I,

Say, where his centric happiness doth lie.

83. I have loved, and got, and told,

But should I love, get, tell, till I were old,

I should not find that hidden mystery.

84. 'Tis not the bodies marry, but the minds,

Which he in her angelic finds,

Would swear as justly, that he hears,

THE MESSAGE.

85. SEND home my long stray'd eyes to me,

Which, O ! too long have dwelt on thee ;

86. Yet send me back my heart and eyes,

That I may know, and see thy lies,

And may laugh and joy

THE BAIT.

87. 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.

88. There will the river whisp'ring run

Warm'd by thy eyes, more than the sun ;

And there th' enamour'd fish will stay,

Begging themselves they may betray.

89. 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.

90. For thee, thou need'st no such deceit,

For thou thyself art thine own bait :

That fish, that is not catch'd thereby,

Alas ! is wiser far than I.

A VALEDICTION FORBIDDING MOURNING.

91. AS virtuous men pass mildly away,

And whisper to their souls to go,

Whilst some of their sad friends do say,

"Now his breath goes," and some say, "No."

92. So let us melt, and make no noise,

No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;

93. 'Twere profanation of our joys

To tell the laity our love.

94. But we by a love so much refined,

That ourselves know not what it is,

Inter-assurèd of the mind,

Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.

Our two souls therefore, which are one,

Though I must go, endure not yet

A breach, but an expansion,

Like gold to aery thinness beat. 

95.  If they be two, they are two so

As stiff twin compasses are two ;

96. Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show

To move, but doth, if th' other do.

97.  And though it in the centre sit,

Yet, when the other far doth roam,

98. It leans, and hearkens after it,

And grows erect, as that comes home.

99. Such wilt thou be to me, who must,

Like th' other foot, obliquely run ;

100.                     Thy firmness makes my circle just,

And makes me end where I begun.

THE ECSTACY

101. WHERE, like a pillow on a bed,

A pregnant bank swell'd up, to rest

The violet's reclining head,

Sat we two, one another's best.

102. Our hands were firmly cemented

By a fast balm, which thence did spring ;

Our eye-beams twisted, and did thread

Our eyes upon one double string.

103. As, 'twixt two equal armies, Fate

Suspends uncertain victory,

Our souls—which to advance their state,

Were gone out—hung 'twixt her and me.

104. And whilst our souls negotiate there,

We like sepulchral statues lay ;

All day, the same our postures were,

And we said nothing, all the day.

105. He—though he knew not which soul spake,

Because both meant, both spake the same—

106. But as all several souls contain

Mixture of things they know not what,

107. Love these mix'd souls doth mix again,

And makes both one, each this, and that.

108. But, O alas ! so long, so far,

Our bodies why do we forbear?

They are ours, though not we ; we are

Th' intelligences, they the spheres.

THE FUNERAL.

109. WHOEVER comes to shroud me, do not harm,

Nor question much,

110. For since I am

Love's martyr, it might breed idolatry,

If into other hands these relics came.

111. That since you would have none of me, I bury some of you.

THE BLOSSOM.

112. That thou to-morrow, ere the sun doth wake,

Must with the sun and me a journey take.

113. Practice may make her know some other part ;

But take my word, she doth not know a heart.

114. Meet me in London, then,

Twenty days hence, and thou shalt see

Me fresher and more fat, 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 ;

115. I will give you

There to another friend, whom we shall find

As glad to have my body as my mind.

THE RELIC.

·         WHEN my grave is broke up again

·         Some second guest to entertain,

·         —For graves have learn'd that woman-head,

116. To be to more than one a bed—

And he that digs it, spies

A bracelet of bright hair about the bone,

Will he not let us alone,

All women shall adore us, and some men.

117. 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 ;

THE PROHIBITION.

118. TAKE heed of loving me ;

At least remember, I forbade it thee ;

119. Take heed of hating me,

Or too much triumph in the victory ;

120.                     If thou hate me, take heed of hating me.

Love me, that I may die the gentler way ;

121. Hate me, because thy love's too great for me ;

Lest thou thy love and hate, and me undo,

• let me live, yet love and hate me too.

THE EXPIRATION.

122. SO, so, break off this last lamenting kiss,

Which sucks two souls, and vapours both away ;

123. Turn, thou ghost, that way, and let me turn this,

And let ourselves benight our happiest day.

124. We ask none leave to love ; nor will we owe

Any so cheap a death as saying, "Go."

125. Go ; and if that word have not quite killed thee,

Ease me with death, by bidding me go too._________________________________________

Divine Poems of John Donne

LA CORONA.

126. For at our ends begins our endless rest.

The first last end, now zealously possess'd,

With a strong sober thirst my soul attends.

'Tis time that heart and voice be lifted high ;

ANNUNCIATION.

Salvation to all that will is nigh ;

127. That All, which always is all everywhere,

Which cannot sin, and yet all sins must bear,

Which cannot die, yet cannot choose but die,

128. Whom thou conceivest, conceived ; yea, thou art now

Thy Maker's maker, and thy Father's mother,

129. Thou hast light in dark, and shutt'st in little room

Immensity, cloister'd in thy dear womb.

NATIVITY.

130. Immensity, cloister'd in thy dear womb,

Now leaves His well-beloved imprisonment.

131. Stars, and wise men will travel to prevent

The effects of Herod's jealous general doom.

132. See'st thou, my soul, with thy faith's eye, how He

Which fills all place, yet none holds Him, doth lie ? 

133. Was not His pity towards thee wondrous high,

That would have need to be pitied by thee ?

Kiss Him, and with Him into Egypt go,

With His kind mother, who partakes thy woe

TEMPLE

134. With the sun to begin His business,

He in His age's morning thus began,

By miracles exceeding power of man.

CRUCIFYING

135. By miracles exceeding power of man,

He faith in some, envy in some begat,

136. For, what weak spirits admire, ambitious hate :

In both affections many to Him ran.

137. Alas ! and do, unto th' Immaculate,

Whose creature Fate is, now prescribe a fate,

Measuring self-life's infinity to span,

Nay to an inch.

138. Lo ! where condemned He

Bears His own cross, with pain, yet by and by

When it bears him, He must bear more and die.

RESURRECTION

139. Moist with one drop of Thy blood, my dry soul

Shall—though she now be in extreme degree

Too stony hard, and yet too fleshly—be

Freed by that drop, from being starved

140. Flesh in that long sleep is not putrified,

But made that there, of which, and for which it was

Nor can by other means be glorified.

ASCENSION

141. Salute the last and everlasting day,

Joy at th' uprising of this Sun, and Son,

Ye whose true tears, or tribulation

Have purely wash'd, or burnt your drossy clay.

142. Behold, the Highest, parting hence away,

Lightens the dark clouds, which He treads upon ;

143. Nor doth He by ascending show alone,

But first He, and He first enters the way.

144. And if Thy Holy Spirit my Muse did raise,

Deign at my hands this crown of prayer and praise.