The Poems of John Donne, Volume 1 (of 2) / Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts

D ONNE, the delight of Phoebus, and each Muse,

 Who, to thy one, all other braines refuse;

Whose every work, of thy most early wit,

Came forth example, and remaines so, yet:

Longer a knowing, than most wits doe live;

And which no'n affection praise enough can give!

To it, thy language, letters, arts, best life,

Which might with halfe mankind maintain a strife;

All which I mean to praise, and, yet, I would;

But leave, because I cannot as I should!

B.Jons.

L VCY, you brightnesse of our Spheare, who are

 Life of the Muses day, their morning Starre!

If works (not th'Authors) their own grace should look

Whose poems would not wish to be your book?

But these, desir'd by you, the makers ends

Crown with their own.Rare Poems ask rare friends.

Yet, Satyres, since the most of mankind bee

Their unavoided subject, fewest see:

For none ere took that pleasure in sins sense,

But, when they heard it tax'd, took more offence.

They, then, that living where the matter is bred,

Dare for these Poems, yet, both ask, and read,

And like them too; must needfully, though few,

Be of the best: and 'mongst those best are you;

Lucy, you brightnefle of our Spheare, who are

The Muses evening, as their morning-Starre.

B.Jon.

W  HO shall doubt, Donne, where I a Poet bee,

   When I dare send my Epigrammes to thee?

That so alone canst judge, so'alone do'st make:

And, in thy censures, evenly, dost take

As free simplicity, to dis-avow,

As thou hast best authority, t'allow.

Read all I send: and, if I finde but one

Mark'd by thy hand, and with the better stone,

My title's seal'd.Those that for claps doe write,

Let punees, porters, players praise delight,

And, till they burst, their backs, like asses load:

A man should seek great glory, and not broad.

B.Jon.

I WONDER by my troth, what thou, and I

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

But suck'd on countrey pleasures, childishly?

Or snorted we in the seaven sleepers den?

  5T'was so; But this, all pleasures fancies bee.

If ever any beauty I did see,

Which I desir'd, and got, t'was but a dreame of thee.

And now good morrow to our waking soules,

Which watch not one another out of feare;

10For love, all love of other sights controules,

And makes one little roome, an every where.

Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,

Let Maps to other, worlds on worlds have showne,

Let us possesse one world, each hath one, and is one.

15My face in thine eye, thine in mine appeares,

And true plaine hearts doe in the faces rest,

Where can we finde two better hemispheares

Without sharpe North, without declining West?

What ever dyes, was not mixt equally;

20If our two loves be one, or, thou and I

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

G OE, and catche a falling starre,

  Get with child a mandrake roote,

Tell me, where all past yeares are,

Or who cleft the Divels foot,

  5Teach me to heare Mermaides singing,

Or to keep off envies stinging,

And finde

What winde

Serves to advance an honest minde.

10If thou beest borne to strange sights,

Things invisible to see,

Ride ten thousand daies and nights,

Till age snow white haires on thee,

Thou, when thou retorn'st, wilt tell mee

15All strange wonders that befell thee,

And sweare

No where

Lives a woman true, and faire.

If thou findst one, let mee know,

20Such a Pilgrimage were sweet;

Yet doe not, I would not goe,

Though at next doore wee might meet,

Though shee were true, when you met her,

And last, till you write your letter,

25Yet shee

Will bee

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

N   OW thou hast lov'd me one whole day,

 To morrow when thou leav'st, what wilt thou say?

Wilt thou then Antedate some new made vow?

Or say that now

  5We are not just those persons, which we were?

Or, that oathes made in reverentiall feare

Of Love, and his wrath, any may forsweare?

Or, as true deaths, true maryages untie,

So lovers contracts, images of those,

10Binde but till sleep, deaths image, them unloose?

Or, your owne end to Justifie,

For having purpos'd change, and falsehood; you

Can have no way but falsehood to be true?

Vaine lunatique, against these scapes I could

15Dispute, and conquer, if I would,

Which I abstaine to doe,

For by to morrow, I may thinke so too.

I  HAVE done one braver thing

  Then all the Worthies did,

And yet a braver thence doth spring,

Which is, to keepe that hid.

  5It were but madnes now t'impart

The skill of specular stone,

When he which can have learn'd the art

To cut it, can finde none.

So, if I now should utter this,

10Others (because no more

Such stuffe to worke upon, there is,)

Would love but as before.

But he who lovelinesse within

Hath found, all outward loathes,

15For he who colour loves, and skinne,

Loves but their oldest clothes.

If, as I have, you also doe

Vertue'attir'd in woman see,

And dare love that, and say so too,

20And forget the Hee and Shee;

And if this love, though placed so,

From prophane men you hide,

Which will no faith on this bestow,

Or, if they doe, deride:

25Then you have done a braver thing

Then all the Worthies did;

And a braver thence will spring,

Which is, to keepe that hid.

BUSIE old foole, unruly Sunne,

Why dost thou thus,

Through windowes, and through curtaines call on us?

Must to thy motions lovers seasons run?

  5Sawcy pedantique wretch, goe chide

Late schoole boyes, and sowre prentices,

Goe tell Court-huntsmen, that the King will ride,

Call countrey ants to harvest offices;

Love, all alike, no season knowes, nor clyme,

10Nor houres, dayes, moneths, which are the rags of time.

Thy beames, so reverend, and strong

Why shouldst thou thinke?

I could eclipse and cloud them with a winke,

But that I would not lose her sight so long:

15If her eyes have not blinded thine,

Looke, and to morrow late, tell mee,

Whether both the'India's of spice and Myne

Be where thou leftst them, or lie here with mee.

Aske for those Kings whom thou saw'st yesterday,

20And thou shalt heare, All here in one bed lay.

She'is all States, and all Princes, I,

Nothing else is.

Princes doe but play us; compar'd to this,

All honor's mimique; All wealth alchimie.

25Thou sunne art halfe as happy'as wee,

In that the world's contracted thus;

Thine age askes ease, and since thy duties bee

To warme the world, that's done in warming us.

Shine here to us, and thou art every where;

30This bed thy center is, these walls, thy spheare.

I   CAN love both faire and browne,

  Her whom abundance melts, and her whom want betraies,

Her who loves lonenesse best, and her who maskes and plaies,

Her whom the country form'd, and whom the town,

  5Her who beleeves, and her who tries,

Her who still weepes with spungie eyes,

And her who is dry corke, and never cries;

I can love her, and her, and you and you,

I can love any, so she be not true.

10Will no other vice content you?

Wil it not serve your turn to do, as did your mothers?

Or have you all old vices spent, and now would finde out others?

Or doth a feare, that men are true, torment you?

Oh we are not, be not you so,

15Let mee, and doe you, twenty know.

Rob mee, but binde me not, and let me goe.

Must I, who came to travaile thorow you,

Grow your fixt subject, because you are true?

Venus heard me sigh this song,

20And by Loves sweetest Part, Variety, she swore,

She heard not this till now; and that it should be so no more.

She went, examin'd, and return'd ere long,

And said, alas, Some two or three

Poore Heretiques in love there bee,

25Which thinke to stablish dangerous constancie.

But I have told them, since you will be true,

You shall be true to them, who'are false to you.

F OR every houre that thou wilt spare mee now,

I will allow,

Usurious God of Love, twenty to thee,

When with my browne, my gray haires equall bee;

  5Till then, Love, let my body raigne, and let

Mee travell, sojourne, snatch, plot, have, forget,

Resume my last yeares relict: thinke that yet

We'had never met.

Let mee thinke any rivalls letter mine,

10And at next nine

Keepe midnights promise; mistake by the way

The maid, and tell the Lady of that delay;

Onely let mee love none, no, not the sport;

From country grasse, to comfitures of Court,

15Or cities quelque choses, let report

My minde transport.

This bargaine's good; if when I'am old, I bee

Inflam'd by thee,

If thine owne honour, or my shame, or paine,

20Thou covet most, at that age thou shalt gaine.

Doe thy will then, then subject and degree,

And fruit of love, Love I submit to thee,

Spare mee till then, I'll beare it, though she bee

One that loves mee.

F  OR Godsake hold your tongue, and let me love,

Or chide my palsie, or my gout,

My five gray haires, or ruin'd fortune flout,

With wealth your state, your minde with Arts improve,

  5Take you a course, get you a place,

Observe his honour, or his grace,

Or the Kings reall, or his stamped face

Contemplate, what you will, approve,

So you will let me love.

10Alas, alas, who's injur'd by my love?

What merchants ships have my sighs drown'd?

Who saies my teares have overflow'd his ground?

When did my colds a forward spring remove?

When did the heats which my veines fill

15Adde one more to the plaguie Bill?

Soldiers finde warres, and Lawyers finde out still

Litigious men, which quarrels move,

Though she and I do love.

Call us what you will, wee are made such by love;

20Call her one, mee another flye,

We'are Tapers too, and at our owne cost die,

And wee in us finde the'Eagle and the Dove.

The Phœnix ridle hath more wit

By us, we two being one, are it.

25So to one neutrall thing both sexes fit,

Wee dye and rise the same, and prove

Mysterious by this love.

Wee can dye by it, if not live by love,

And if unfit for tombes and hearse

30Our legend bee, it will be fit for verse;

And if no peece of Chronicle wee prove,

We'll build in sonnets pretty roomes;

As well a well wrought urne becomes

The greatest ashes, as halfe-acre tombes,

35And by these hymnes, all shall approve

Us Canoniz'd for Love:

And thus invoke us; You whom reverend love

Made one anothers hermitage;

You, to whom love was peace, that now is rage;

40Who did the whole worlds soule contract, and drove

Into the glasses of your eyes

(So made such mirrors, and such spies,

That they did all to you epitomize,)

Countries, Townes, Courts: Beg from above

45A patterne of your love!

I AM two fooles, I know,

 For loving, and for saying so

In whining Poëtry;

But where's that wiseman, that would not be I,

  5If she would not deny?

Then as th'earths inward narrow crooked lanes

Do purge sea waters fretfull salt away,

I thought, if I could draw my paines,

Through Rimes vexation, I should them allay,

10Griefe brought to numbers cannot be so fierce,

For, he tames it, that fetters it in verse.

But when I have done so,

Some man, his art and voice to show,

Doth Set and sing my paine,

15And, by delighting many, frees againe

Griefe, which verse did restraine.

To Love, and Griefe tribute of Verse belongs,

But not of such as pleases when'tis read,

Both are increased by such songs:

20For both their triumphs so are published,

And I, which was two fooles, do so grow three;

Who are a little wise, the best fooles bee.

I F yet I have not all thy love,

  Deare, I shall never have it all,

I cannot breath one other sigh, to move,

Nor can intreat one other teare to fall,

  5And all my treasure, which should purchase thee,

Sighs, teares, and oathes, and letters I have spent.

Yet no more can be due to mee,

Then at the bargaine made was ment,

If then thy gift of love were partiall,

10That some to mee, some should to others fall,

Deare, I shall never have Thee All.

Or if then thou gavest mee all,

All was but All, which thou hadst then;

But if in thy heart, since, there be or shall,

15New love created bee, by other men,

Which have their stocks intire, and can in teares,

In sighs, in oathes, and letters outbid mee,

This new love may beget new feares,

For, this love was not vowed by thee.

20And yet it was, thy gift being generall,

The ground, thy heart is mine, what ever shall

Grow there, deare, I should have it all.

Yet I would not have all yet,

Hee that hath all can have no more,

25And since my love doth every day admit

New growth, thou shouldst have new rewards in store;

Thou canst not every day give me thy heart,

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

Loves riddles are, that though thy heart depart,

30It stayes at home, and thou with losing savest it:

But wee will have a way more liberall,

Then changing hearts, to joyne them, so wee shall

Be one, and one anothers All.

S  WEETEST love, I do not goe,

   For wearinesse of thee,

Nor in hope the world can show

A fitter Love for mee;

  5But since that I

Must dye at last, 'tis best,

To use my selfe in jest

Thus by fain'd deaths to dye;

Yesternight the Sunne went hence,

10And yet is here to day,

He hath no desire nor sense,

Nor halfe so short a way:

Then feare not mee,

But beleeve that I shall make

15Speedier journeyes, since I take

More wings and spurres then hee.

O how feeble is mans power,

That if good fortune fall,

Cannot adde another houre,

20Nor a lost houre recall!

But come bad chance,

And wee joyne to'it our strength,

And wee teach it art and length,

It selfe o'r us to'advance.

25When thou sigh'st, thou sigh'st not winde,

But sigh'st my soule away,

When thou weep'st, unkindly kinde,

My lifes blood doth decay.

It cannot bee

30That thou lov'st mee, as thou say'st,

If in thine my life thou waste,

Thou art the best of mee.

Let not thy divining heart

Forethinke me any ill,

35Destiny may take thy part,

And may thy feares fulfill;

But thinke that wee

Are but turn'd aside to sleepe;

They who one another keepe

40Alive, ne'r parted bee.

WHEN I dyed last, and, Deare, I dye

As often as from thee I goe,

Though it be but an houre agoe,

And Lovers houres be full eternity,

  5I can remember yet, that I

Something did say, and something did bestow;

Though I be dead, which sent mee, I should be

Mine owne executor and Legacie.

I heard mee say, Tell her anon,

10That my selfe, (that is you, not I,)

Did kill me, and when I felt mee dye,

I bid mee send my heart, when I was gone,

But I alas could there finde none,

When I had ripp'd me,'and search'd where hearts did lye;

15It kill'd mee againe, that I who still was true,

In life, in my last Will should cozen you.

Yet I found something like a heart,

But colours it, and corners had,

It was not good, it was not bad,

20It was intire to none, and few had part.

As good as could be made by art

It seem'd; and therefore for our losses sad,

I meant to send this heart in stead of mine,

But oh, no man could hold it, for twas thine.

O H doe not die, for I shall hate

  All women so, when thou art gone,

That thee I shall not celebrate,

When I remember, thou wast one.

  5But yet thou canst not die, I know;

To leave this world behinde, is death,

But when thou from this world wilt goe,

The whole world vapors with thy breath.

Or if, when thou, the worlds soule, goest,

10It stay, tis but thy carkasse then,

The fairest woman, but thy ghost,

But corrupt wormes, the worthyest men.

O wrangling schooles, that search what fire

Shall burne this world, had none the wit

15Unto this knowledge to aspire,

That this her feaver might be it?

And yet she cannot wast by this,

Nor long beare this torturing wrong,

For much corruption needfull is

20To fuell such a feaver long.

These burning fits but meteors bee,

Whose matter in thee is soone spent.

Thy beauty,'and all parts, which are thee,

Are unchangeable firmament.

25Yet t'was of my minde, seising thee,

Though it in thee cannot persever.

For I had rather owner bee

Of thee one houre, then all else ever.

TWICE or thrice had I loved thee,

Before I knew thy face or name;

So in a voice, so in a shapelesse flame,

Angells affect us oft, and worship'd bee;

  5Still when, to where thou wert, I came,

Some lovely glorious nothing I did see.

But since my soule, whose child love is,

Takes limmes of flesh, and else could nothing doe,

More subtile then the parent is,

10Love must not be, but take a body too,

And therefore what thou wert, and who,

I bid Love aske, and now

That it assume thy body, I allow,

And fixe it selfe in thy lip, eye, and brow.

15Whilst thus to ballast love, I thought,

And so more steddily to have gone,

With wares which would sinke admiration,

I saw, I had loves pinnace overfraught,

Ev'ry thy haire for love to worke upon

20Is much too much, some fitter must be sought;

For, nor in nothing, nor in things

Extreme, and scatt'ring bright, can love inhere;

Then as an Angell, face, and wings

Of aire, not pure as it, yet pure doth weare,

25So thy love may be my loves spheare;

Just such disparitie

As is twixt Aire and Angells puritie,

'Twixt womens love, and mens will ever bee.

'T  IS true, 'tis day; what though it be?

   O wilt thou therefore rise from me?

Why should we rise, because 'tis light?

Did we lie downe, because 'twas night?

  5Love which in spight of darknesse brought us hether,

Should in despight of light keepe us together.

Light hath no tongue, but is all eye;

If it could speake as well as spie,

This were the worst, that it could say,

10That being well, I faine would stay,

And that I lov'd my heart and honor so,

That I would not from him, that had them, goe.

Must businesse thee from hence remove?

Oh, that's the worst disease of love,

15The poore, the foule, the false, love can

Admit, but not the busied man.

He which hath businesse, and makes love, doth doe

Such wrong, as when a maryed man doth wooe.

A LL Kings, and all their favorites,

  All glory of honors, beauties, wits,

The Sun it selfe, which makes times, as they passe,

Is elder by a yeare, now, then it was

  5When thou and I first one another saw:

All other things, to their destruction draw,

Only our love hath no decay;

This, no to morrow hath, nor yesterday,

Running it never runs from us away,

10But truly keepes his first, last, everlasting day.

Two graves must hide thine and my coarse,

If one might, death were no divorce.

Alas, as well as other Princes, wee,

(Who Prince enough in one another bee,)

15Must leave at last in death, these eyes, and eares,

Oft fed with true oathes, and with sweet salt teares;

But soules where nothing dwells but love

(All other thoughts being inmates) then shall prove

This, or a love increased there above,

20When bodies to their graves, soules from their graves remove.

And then wee shall be throughly blest,

But wee no more, then all the rest;

Here upon earth, we'are Kings, and none but wee

Can be such Kings, nor of such subjects bee.

25Who is so safe as wee?where none can doe

Treason to us, except one of us two.

True and false feares let us refraine,

Let us love nobly, and live, and adde againe

Yeares and yeares unto yeares, till we attaine

30To write threescore: this is the second of our raigne.

MY name engrav'd herein,

Doth contribute my firmnesse to this glasse,

Which, ever since that charme, hath beene

As hard, as that which grav'd it, was;

  5Thine eye will give it price enough, to mock

The diamonds of either rock.

'Tis much that Glasse should bee

As all confessing, and through-shine as I,

'Tis more, that it shewes thee to thee,

10And cleare reflects thee to thine eye.

But all such rules, loves magique can undoe,

Here you see mee, and I am you.

As no one point, nor dash,

Which are but accessaries to this name,

15The showers and tempests can outwash,

So shall all times finde mee the same;

You this intirenesse better may fulfill,

Who have the patterne with you still.

Or, if too hard and deepe

20This learning be, for a scratch'd name to teach,

It, as a given deaths head keepe,

Lovers mortalitie to preach,

Or thinke this ragged bony name to bee

My ruinous Anatomie.

25Then, as all my soules bee,

Emparadis'd in you, (in whom alone

I understand, and grow and see,)

The rafters of my body, bone

Being still with you, the Muscle, Sinew, and Veine,

30Which tile this house, will come againe.

Till my returne, repaire

And recompact my scattered body so.

As all the vertuous powers which are

Fix'd in the starres, are said to flow

35Into such characters, as graved bee

When these starres have supremacie:

So, since this name was cut

When love and griefe their exaltation had,

No doore 'gainst this names influence shut;

40As much more loving, as more sad,

'Twill make thee; and thou shouldst, till I returne,

Since I die daily, daily mourne.

When thy inconsiderate hand

Flings ope this casement, with my trembling name,

45To looke on one, whose wit or land,

New battry to thy heart may frame,

Then thinke this name alive, and that thou thus

In it offendst my Genius.

And when thy melted maid,

50Corrupted by thy Lover's gold, and page,

His letter at thy pillow'hath laid,

Disputed it, and tam'd thy rage,

And thou begin'st to thaw towards him, for this,

May my name step in, and hide his.

55And if this treason goe

To an overt act, and that thou write againe;

In superscribing, this name flow

Into thy fancy, from the pane.

So, in forgetting thou remembrest right,

60And unaware to mee shalt write.

But glasse, and lines must bee,

No meanes our firme substantiall love to keepe;

Neere death inflicts this lethargie,

And this I murmure in my sleepe;

65Impute this idle talke, to that I goe,

For dying men talke often so.

B LASTED with sighs, and surrounded with teares,

 Hither I come to seeke the spring,

And at mine eyes, and at mine eares,

Receive such balmes, as else cure every thing;

  5But O, selfe traytor, I do bring

The spider love, which transubstantiates all,

And can convert Manna to gall,

And that this place may thoroughly be thought

True Paradise, I have the serpent brought.

10'Twere wholsomer for mee, that winter did

Benight the glory of this place,

And that a grave frost did forbid

These trees to laugh, and mocke mee to my face;

But that I may not this disgrace

15Indure, nor yet leave loving, Love let mee

Some senslesse peece of this place bee;

Make me a mandrake, so I may groane here,

Or a stone fountaine weeping out my yeare.

Hither with christall vyals, lovers come,

20And take my teares, which are loves wine,

And try your mistresse Teares at home,

For all are false, that tast not just like mine;

Alas, hearts do not in eyes shine,

Nor can you more judge womans thoughts by teares,

25Then by her shadow, what she weares.

O perverse sexe, where none is true but shee,

Who's therefore true, because her truth kills mee.

I'LL tell thee now (deare Love) what thou shalt doe

To anger destiny, as she doth us,

How I shall stay, though she Esloygne me thus

And how posterity shall know it too;

  5How thine may out-endure

Sybills glory, and obscure

Her who from Pindar could allure,

And her, through whose helpe Lucan is not lame,

And her, whose booke (they say) Homer did finde, and name.

10Study our manuscripts, those Myriades

Of letters, which have past twixt thee and mee,

Thence write our Annals, and in them will bee

To all whom loves subliming fire invades,

Rule and example found;

15There, the faith of any ground

No schismatique will dare to wound,

That sees, how Love this grace to us affords,

To make, to keep, to use, to be these his Records.

This Booke, as long-liv'd as the elements,

20Or as the worlds forme, this all-graved tome

In cypher writ, or new made Idiome,

Wee for loves clergie only'are instruments:

When this booke is made thus,

Should againe the ravenous

25Vandals and Goths inundate us,

Learning were safe; in this our Universe

Schooles might learne Sciences, Spheares Musick, Angels Verse.

Here Loves Divines, (since all Divinity

Is love or wonder) may finde all they seeke,

30Whether abstract spirituall love they like,

Their Soules exhal'd with what they do not see,

Or, loth so to amuze

Faiths infirmitie, they chuse

Something which they may see and use;

35For, though minde be the heaven, where love doth sit,

Beauty a convenient type may be to figure it.

Here more then in their bookes may Lawyers finde,

Both by what titles Mistresses are ours,

And how prerogative these states devours,

40Transferr'd from Love himselfe, to womankinde,

Who though from heart, and eyes,

They exact great subsidies,

Forsake him who on them relies,

And for the cause, honour, or conscience give,

45Chimeraes, vaine as they, or their prerogative.

Here Statesmen, (or of them, they which can reade,)

May of their occupation finde the grounds:

Love and their art alike it deadly wounds,

If to consider what 'tis, one proceed,

50In both they doe excell

Who the present governe well,

Whose weaknesse none doth, or dares tell;

In this thy booke, such will their nothing see,

As in the Bible some can finde out Alchimy.

55Thus vent thy thoughts; abroad I'll studie thee,

As he removes farre off, that great heights takes;

How great love is, presence best tryall makes,

But absence tryes how long this love will bee;

To take a latitude

60Sun, or starres, are fitliest view'd

At their brightest, but to conclude

Of longitudes, what other way have wee,

But to marke when, and where the darke eclipses bee?

G OOD wee must love, and must hate ill,

   For ill is ill, and good good still,

But there are things indifferent,

Which wee may neither hate, nor love,

But one, and then another prove,

  5As wee shall finde our fancy bent.

If then at first wise Nature had

Made women either good or bad,

Then some wee might hate, and some chuse,

10But since shee did them so create,

That we may neither love, nor hate,

Onely this rests, All, all may use.

If they were good it would be seene,

Good is as visible as greene,

15And to all eyes it selfe betrayes:

If they were bad, they could not last,

Bad doth it selfe, and others wast,

So, they deserve nor blame, nor praise.

But they are ours as fruits are ours,

20He that but tasts, he that devours,

And he that leaves all, doth as well:

Chang'd loves are but chang'd sorts of meat,

And when hee hath the kernell eate,

Who doth not fling away the shell?

ISCARCE beleeve my love to be so pure

As I had thought it was,

Because it doth endure

Vicissitude, and season, as the grasse;

  5Me thinkes I lyed all winter, when I swore,

My love was infinite, if spring make'it more.

But if this medicine, love, which cures all sorrow

With more, not onely bee no quintessence,

But mixt of all stuffes, paining soule, or sense,

10And of the Sunne his working vigour borrow,

Love's not so pure, and abstract, as they use

To say, which have no Mistresse but their Muse,

But as all else, being elemented too,

Love sometimes would contemplate, sometimes do.

15And yet no greater, but more eminent,

Love by the spring is growne;

As, in the firmament,

Starres by the Sunne are not inlarg'd, but showne.

Gentle love deeds, as blossomes on a bough,

20From loves awakened root do bud out now.

If, as in water stir'd more circles bee

Produc'd by one, love such additions take,

Those like so many spheares, but one heaven make,

For, they are all concentrique unto thee.

25And though each spring doe adde to love new heate,

As princes doe in times of action get

New taxes, and remit them not in peace,

No winter shall abate the springs encrease.

LOVE, any devill else but you,

Would for a given Soule give something too.

At Court your fellowes every day,

Give th'art of Riming, Huntsmanship, or Play,

  5For them which were their owne before;

Onely I have nothing which gave more,

But am, alas, by being lowly, lower.

I aske no dispensation now

To falsifie a teare, or sigh, or vow,

10I do not sue from thee to draw

A non obstante on natures law,

These are prerogatives, they inhere

In thee and thine; none should forsweare

Except that hee Loves minion were.

15Give mee thy weaknesse, make mee blinde,

Both wayes, as thou and thine, in eies and minde;

Love, let me never know that this

Is love, or, that love childish is;

Let me not know that others know

20That she knowes my paines, least that so

A tender shame make me mine owne new woe.

If thou give nothing, yet thou'art just,

Because I would not thy first motions trust;

Small townes which stand stiffe, till great shot

25Enforce them, by warres law condition not.

Such in loves warfare is my case,

I may not article for grace,

Having put Love at last to shew this face.

This face, by which he could command

30And change the Idolatrie of any land,

This face, which wheresoe'r it comes,

Can call vow'd men from cloisters, dead from tombes,

And melt both Poles at once, and store

Deserts with cities, and make more

35Mynes in the earth, then Quarries were before.

For this, Love is enrag'd with mee,

Yet kills not.If I must example bee

To future Rebells; If th'unborne

Must learne, by my being cut up, and torne:

40Kill, and dissect me, Love; for this

Torture against thine owne end is,

Rack't carcasses make ill Anatomies.

SOME man unworthy to be possessor

Of old or new love, himselfe being false or weake,

Thought his paine and shame would be lesser,

If on womankind he might his anger wreake,

  5And thence a law did grow,

One might but one man know;

But are other creatures so?

Are Sunne, Moone, or Starres by law forbidden,

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

10Are birds divorc'd, or are they chidden

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

Beasts doe no joyntures lose

Though they new lovers choose,

But we are made worse then those.

15Who e'r rigg'd faire ship to lie in harbors,

And not to seeke new lands, or not to deale withall?

Or built faire houses, set trees, and arbors,

Only to lock up, or else to let them fall?

Good is not good, unlesse

20A thousand it possesse,

But doth wast with greedinesse.

D EARE love, for nothing lesse then thee

  Would I have broke this happy dreame,

It was a theame

For reason, much too strong for phantasie,

  5Therefore thou wakd'st me wisely; yet

My Dreame thou brok'st not, but continued'st it,

Thou art so truth, that thoughts of thee suffice,

To make dreames truths; and fables histories;

Enter these armes, for since thou thoughtst it best,

10Not to dreame all my dreame, let's act the rest.

As lightning, or a Tapers light,

Thine eyes, and not thy noise wak'd mee;

Yet I thought thee

(For thou lovest truth) an Angell, at first sight,

15But when I saw thou sawest my heart,

And knew'st my thoughts, beyond an Angels art,

When thou knew'st what I dreamt, when thou knew'st when

Excesse of joy would wake me, and cam'st then,

I must confesse, it could not chuse but bee

20Prophane, to thinke thee any thing but thee.

Comming and staying show'd thee, thee,

But rising makes me doubt, that now,

Thou art not thou.

That love is weake, where feare's as strong as hee;

25'Tis not all spirit, pure, and brave,

If mixture it of Feare, Shame, Honor, have.

Perchance as torches which must ready bee,

Men light and put out, so thou deal'st with mee,

Thou cam'st to kindle, goest to come; Then I

30Will dreame that hope againe, but else would die.

LET me powre forth

My teares before thy face, whil'st I stay here,

For thy face coines them, and thy stampe they beare,

And by this Mintage they are something worth,

  5For thus they bee

Pregnant of thee;

Fruits of much griefe they are, emblemes of more,

When a teare falls, that thou falst which it bore,

So thou and I are nothing then, when on a divers shore.

10On a round ball

A workeman that hath copies by, can lay

An Europe, Afrique, and an Asia,

And quickly make that, which was nothing, All,

So doth each teare,

15Which thee doth weare,

A globe, yea world by that impression grow,

Till thy teares mixt with mine doe overflow

This world, by waters sent from thee, my heaven dissolved so.

O more then Moone,

20Draw not up seas to drowne me in thy spheare,

Weepe me not dead, in thine armes, but forbeare

To teach the sea, what it may doe too soone;

Let not the winde

Example finde,

25To doe me more harme, then it purposeth;

Since thou and I sigh one anothers breath,

Who e'r sighes most, is cruellest, and hasts the others death.

SOME that have deeper digg'd loves Myne then I,

Say, where his centrique happinesse doth lie:

I have lov'd, and got, and told,

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

  5I should not finde that hidden mysterie;

Oh, 'tis imposture all:

And as no chymique yet th'Elixar got,

But glorifies his pregnant pot,

If by the way to him befall

10Some odoriferous thing, or medicinall,

So, lovers dreame 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 vaine Bubles shadow pay?

15Ends love in this, that my man,

Can be as happy'as I can; If he can

Endure the short scorne of a Bridegroomes play?

That loving wretch that sweares,

'Tis not the bodies marry, but the mindes,

20Which he in her Angelique findes,

Would sweare as justly, that he heares,

In that dayes rude hoarse minstralsey, the spheares.

Hope not for minde in women; at their best

Sweetnesse and wit, they'are but Mummy, possest.