Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) (99 page)

The Flea

John Donne (1573–1631)

Mark but this flea, and mark in this,

How little that which thou deniest me is;

It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,

And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;

Thou know’st that this cannot be said

A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead,

  Yet this enjoys before it woo,

  And pampered swells with one blood made of two,

  And this, alas, is more than we would do.

Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,

Where we almost, nay more than married are.

This flea is you and I, and this

Our mariage bed, and marriage temple is;

Though parents grudge, and you, w’are met,

And cloistered in these living walls of jet.

  Though use make you apt to kill me,

  Let not to that, self-murder added be,

  And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.

Cruel and sudden, hast thou since

Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence?

Wherein could this flea guilty be,

Except in that drop which it sucked from thee?

Yet thou triumph’st, and say’st that thou

Find’st not thy self, nor me the weaker now;

  ’Tis true; then learn how false, fears be:

  Just so much honor, when thou yield’st to me,

  Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

The Funeral

John Donne (1573–1631)

WHOEVER comes to shroud me, do not harm
  
Nor question much
That subtle wreath of hair about mine arm;
The mystery, the sign you must not touch,
 
For ’tis my outward soul,
  
5
Viceroy to that which, unto heav’n being gone,
 
Will leave this to control
And keep these limbs, her provinces, from dissolution.

For if the sinewy thread my brain lets fall
  
Through every part
  
10
Can tie those parts, and make me one of all;
Those hairs, which upward grew, and strength and art
 
Have from a better brain,
Can better do ‘t: except she meant that I
 
By this should know my pain,
  
15
As prisoners then are manacled, when they’re condemn’d to die.

Whate’er she meant by’t, bury it with me,
  
For since I am
Love’s martyr, it might breed idolatry
If into other hands these reliques came.
  
20
 
As ’twas humility
T’ afford to it all that a soul can do,
 
So ’tis some bravery
That, since you would have none of me, I bury some of you.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

A Hymn to God the Father

John Donne (1573–1631)

WILT Thou forgive that sin where I begun,
 
Which was my sin, though it were done before?
Wilt Thou forgive that sin through which I run,
 
And do run still, though still I do deplore?
When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done;
  
5
  
For I have more.

Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I have won
 
Others to sin, and made my sins their door?
Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I did shun
 
A year or two, but wallow’d in a score?
  
10
When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done;
  
For I have more.

I have a sin of fear, that when I’ve spun
 
My last thread, I shall perish on the shore;
But swear by Thyself that at my death Thy Son
  
15
 
Shall shine as He shines now and heretofore:
And having done that, Thou hast done;
  
I fear no more.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

Valediction, Forbidding Mourning

John Donne (1573–1631)

AS virtuous men pass mildly away,
 
And whisper to their souls to go;
While some of their sad friends do say,
 
Now his breath goes, and some say, No;

So let us melt, and make no noise,
  
5
 
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;
‘Twere profanation of our joys
 
To tell the laity our love.

Moving of th’ earth brings harms and fears
 
Men reckon what it did and meant;
  
10
But trepidations of the spheres,
 
Though greater far, are innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers’ love,
 
Whose soul is sense, cannot admit
Absence; for that it doth remove
  
15
 
Those things which elemented it.

But we, by a love so far refined,
 
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assurèd of the mind,
 
Careless, eyes, lips and hands to miss,
  
20

 
— Our two souls therefore, which are one,
 
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
 
Like gold to airy thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so
  
25
 
As stiff twin compasses are two;
Thy soul, the fixt foot, makes no show
 
To move, but doth if th’ other do.

And though it in the centre sit,
 
Yet when the other far doth roam,
  
30
It leans and hearkens after it,
 
And grows erect as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
 
Like th’ other foot, obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circles just,
  
35
 
And makes me end where I begun.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

Death

John Donne (1573–1631)

DEATH, be not proud, though some have callèd thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so:
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death; nor yet canst thou kill me.
From Rest and Sleep, which but thy picture be,
  
5
Much pleasure, then from thee much more must flow;
And soonest our best men with thee do go —
Rest of their bones and souls’ delivery!
Thou’rt slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;
  
10
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke. Why swell’st thou then?
 
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
 
And Death shall be no more: Death, thou shalt die!

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

The Dream

John Donne (1573–1631)

DEAR love, for nothing less than thee
Would I have broke this happy dream;
   
It was a theme
For reason, much too strong for fantasy.
Therefore thou waked’st me wisely; yet
  
5
My dream thou brak’st not, but continued’st it:
Thou art so true that thoughts of thee suffice
To make dreams truths and fables histories.
Enter these arms, for since thou thought’st it best
Not to dream all my dream, let’s act the rest.
  
10

As lightning, or a taper’s light,
Thine eyes, and not thy noise, waked me;
   
Yet I thought thee —
For thou lov’st truth — an angel at first sight;
But when I saw thou saw’st my heart,
  
15
And knew’st my thoughts beyond an angel’s art,
When thou knew’st what I dreamt, when thou knew’st when
Excess of joy would wake me, and cam’st then,
I must confess it could not choose but be
Profane to think thee anything but thee.
  
20

Coming and staying show’d thee thee;
But rising makes me doubt that now
   
Thou art not thou.
That Love is weak where Fear’s as strong as he;
’Tis not all spirit pure and brave,
  
25
If mixture it of Fear, Shame, Honour have.
Perchance, as torches, which must ready be,
Men light and put out, so thou dealst with me.
Thou cam’st to kindle, goest to come: then I
Will dream that hope again, but else would die.
  
30

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

Song

John Donne (1573–1631)

GO and catch a falling star,
 
Get with child a mandrake root,
Tell me where all past hours are,
 
Or who cleft the Devil’s foot;
Teach me to hear mermaids singing,
  
5
Or to keep off envy’s stinging,
   
Or find
   
What wind
Serves to advance an honest mind.

If thou be’st born to strange sights,
  
10
 
Things invisible go see,
Ride ten thousand days and nights,
 
Till age snow white hairs on thee.
Thou at thy return wilt tell me
All strange wonders that befell thee,
  
15
   
And swear,
   
No where
Lives a woman true and fair.

If thou find’st one, let me know,
 
Such a pilgrimage were sweet;
  
20
Yet do not, I would not go,
 
Though at next door we should meet.
Though she were true when you met her,
And last till you write your letter,
   
Yet she
  
25
   
Will be
False, ere I come, to two or three.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order