John Donne - Delphi Poets Series

by John Donne

  To spoile the nests industrious birds do make;

  Yet them all these unkinde kinds feed upon,

  To kill them is an occupation,

  And lawes make fasts, and lents for their destruction.

  XXX.

  A sudden stiffe land-winde in that selfe houre

  To sea-ward forc’d this bird, that did devour

  The fish; he cares not, for with ease he flies,

  Fat gluttonies best orator: at last

  So long hee hath flowen, and hath flowen so fast

  That leagues o’er-past at sea, now tir’d hee lyes,

  And with his prey, that till then languisht, dies,

  The soules no longer foes, two wayes did erre,

  The fish I follow, and keepe no calender

  Of the other; he lives yet in some great officer.

  XXXI.

  Into an embrion fish, our Soule is throwne,

  And in due time throwne out againe, and growne

  To such vastnesse, as if unmanacled

  From Greece, Morea were, and that by some

  Earthquake unrooted, loose Morea swome,

  Or seas from Africks body had severed

  And torne the hopefull Promontories head,

  This fish would seeme these, and, when all hopes faile,

  A great ship overset, or without saile

  Hulling, might (when this was a whelp) be like this whale.

  XXXII.

  At every stroake his brazen finnes do take,

  More circles in the broken sea they make

  Then cannons voices, when the aire they teare:

  His ribs are pillars, and his high arch’d roofe

  Of barke that blunts best steele, is thunder-proofe:

  Swimme in him swallowed Dolphins, without feare,

  And feele no sides, as if his vast wombe were

  Some inland sea, and ever as hee went

  He spouted rivers up, as if he ment

  To joyne our seas, with seas above the firmament.

  XXXIII.

  He hunts not fish, but as an officer,

  Stayes in his court, at his owne net, and there

  All suitors of all sorts themselves enthrall;

  So on his backe lyes this whale wantoning,

  And in his gulfe-like throat, sucks every thing

  That passeth neare. Fish chaseth fish, and all,

  Flyer and follower, in this whirlepoole fall;

  O might not states of more equality

  Consist? and is it of necessity

  That thousand guiltlesse smals, to make one great, must die?

  XXXIV.

  Now drinkes he up seas, and he eates up flocks,

  He justles Ilands, and he shakes firme rockes.

  Now in a roomefull house this Soule doth float,

  And like a Prince she sends her faculties

  To all her limbes, distant as Provinces.

  The Sunne hath twenty times both crab and goate

  Parched, since first lanch’d forth this living boate,

  ‘Tis greatest now, and to destruction

  Nearest; There’s no pause at perfection,

  Greatenesse a period hath, but hath no station.

  XXXV.

  Two little fishes whom hee never harm’d,

  Nor fed on their kinde, two not thoroughly arm’d

  With hope that they could kill him, nor could doe

  Good to themselves by his death (they did not eate

  His flesh, nor suck those oyles, which thence outstreat)

  Conspir’d against him, and it might undoe

  The plot of all, that the plotters were two,

  But that they fishes were, and could not speake.

  How shall a Tyran wise strong projects breake,

  If wreches can on them the common anger wreake?

  XXXVI.

  The flaile-finn’d Thresher, and steel-beak’d Sword-fish

  Onely attempt to doe, what all doe wish.

  The Thresher backs him, and to beate begins;

  The sluggard Whale yeelds to oppression,

  And t’hide himselfe from shame and danger, downe

  Begins to sinke; the Swordfish upward spins,

  And gores him with his beake; his staffe-like finnes,

  So well the one, his sword the other plyes,

  That now a scoffe, and prey, this tyran dyes,

  And (his owne dole) feeds with himselfe all companies.

  XXXVII.

  Who will revenge his death? or who will call

  Those to account, that thought, and wrought his fall?

  The heires of slaine kings, wee see are often so

  Transported with the joy of what they get,

  That they, revenge and obsequies forget,

  Nor will against such men the people goe,

  Because h’is now dead, to whom they should show

  Love in that act. Some kings by vice being growne

  So needy of subjects love, that of their own

  They thinke they lose, if love be to the dead Prince showne.

  XXXVIII.

  This Soule, now free from prison, and passion,

  Hath yet a little indignation

  That so small hammers should so soone downe beat

  So great a castle. And having for her house

  Got the streight cloyster of a wreched mouse

  (As basest men that have not what to eate,

  Nor enjoy ought, doe farre more hate the great

  Then they, who good repos’d estates possesse)

  This Soule, late taught that great things might by lesse

  Be slaine, to gallant mischiefe doth herself addresse.

  XXXIX.

  Natures great master-peece, an Elephant,

  The onely harmlesse great thing; the giant

  Of beasts; who thought, no more had gone, to make one wise

  But to be just, and thankfull, loth to offend,

  (Yet nature hath given him no knees to bend)

  Himselfe he up-props, on himselfe relies,

  And foe to none, suspects no enemies,

  Still sleeping stood; vex’t not his fantasie

  Blacke dreames, like and unbent bow, carelessly

  His sinewy Proboscis did remisly lie.

  XL.

  In which as in a gallery this mouse

  Walk’d, and surveid the roomes of this vast house,

  And to the braine, the soules bedchamber, went,

  And gnaw’d the life cords there; Like a whole towne

  Cleane undermin’d, the slaine beast tumbled downe,

  With him the murtherer dies whom envy sent

  To kill, not scape, (for, only hee that ment

  To die, did ever kill a man of better roome,)

  And thus he made his foe, his prey, and tombe:

  Who cares not to turn back, may any whither come.

  XLI.

  Next, hous’d this Soule a Wolves yet unborne whelp,

  Till the best midwife, Nature, gave it helpe,

  To issue. It could kill, as soon as goe:

  Abel, as white, and milde as his sheepe were,

  (Who in that trade, of Church, and kingdomes, there

  Was the first type) was still infested soe,

  With this wolfe, that it bred his losse and woe;

  And yet his bitch, his sentinell attends

  The flocke so neere, so well warnes and defends,

  That the wolfe, (hopelesse else) to corrupt her, intends.

  XLII.

  Hee tooke a course, which since, successfully,

  Great men have often taken, to espie

  The counsels, or to breake the plots of foes,

  To Abels tent he stealeth in the darke,

  On whose skirts the bitch slept; ere she could barke,

  Attach’d her with streight gripes, yet hee call’d those,

  Embracements of love; to loves work he goes,

  Where deeds move more than words; nor doth she show,
/>   Nor much resist, nor needs hee streighten so

  His prey, for, were shee loose, she would nor barke, nor goe.

  XLIII.

  Hee hath engag’d her; his, she wholy bides;

  Who not her owne, none others secrets hides,

  If to the flocke he come, and Abell there,

  She faines hoarse barkings, but she biteth not,

  Her faith is quite, but not her love forgot.

  At last a trap, of which some every where

  Abell had plac’d, ends all his losse, and feare,

  By the Wolves death; and now just time it was

  That a quick soule should give life to that masse

  Of blood in Abels bitch, and thither this did passe.

  XLIV.

  Some have their wives, their sisters some begot,

  But in the lives of Emperours you shall not

  Reade of a lust the which may equall this;

  This wolfe begot himselfe, and finished

  What he began alive, when hee was dead,

  Sonne to himselfe, and father too, hee is

  A ridling lust, for which Schoolemen would misse

  A proper name. The whelpe of both these lay

  In Abels tent, and with soft Moaba,

  His sister, being yong, it us’d to sport and play.

  XLV.

  Hee soone for her too harsh, and churlish grew,

  And Abell (the dam dead) would use this new

  For the field, being of two kindes thus made,

  He, as his dam, from sheepe drove wolves away,

  And as his Sire, he made them his ownes prey.

  Five years he liv’d, and cosened with his trade,

  Then hopeless that his faults were hid, betraid

  Himselfe by flight, and by all followed,

  From dogges, a wolfe; from wolves, a dogge he fled;

  And, like a spie to both sides false, he perished.

  XLVI.

  It quickened next a toyfull Ape, and so

  Gamesome it was, that it might freely goe

  From tent to tent, and with the children play,

  His organs now so like theirs hee doth finde,

  That why he cannot laugh, and speake his minde,

  He wonders. Much with all, most he doth stay

  With Adams fift daughter Siphatecia

  Doth gaze on her, and, where she passeth, passe,

  Gathers her fruits, and tumbles on the grasse,

  And wisest of that kinde, the first true lover was.

  XLVII.

  He was the first that more desir’d to have

  One then another; first that ere did crave

  Love by mute signes, and had no power to speake;

  First that could make love faces, or could doe

  The valters sombersalts, or us’d to wooe

  With hoiting gambolls, his owne bones to breake

  To make his mistresse merry; or to wreake

  Her anger on himselfe. Sinnes against kinde

  They easily doe, that can let feed their minde

  With outward beauty, beauty they in boyes and beasts do find.

  XLVIII.

  By this misled, too low things men have prov’d,

  And too high; beasts and angels have beene lov’d;

  This Ape, though else through-vaine, in this was wise,

  He reach’d at things too high, but open way

  There was, and he knew not she would say nay;

  His toyes prevaile not, likelier meanes he tries,

  He gazeth on her face with teare-shot eyes,

  And up lifts subtly with his russet pawe

  Her kidskinne apron without feare or awe

  Of Nature; Nature hath no gaole, though she hath law.

  XLIX.

  First she was silly and knew not what he ment,

  That vertue, by his touches, chaft and spent,

  Succeeds an itchie warmth, that melts her quite,

  She knew not first, now cares not what he doth,

  And willing halfe and more, more then halfe loth,

  She neither puls nor pushes, but outright

  Now cries, and now repents; when Tethlemite

  Her brother, enterd, and a great stone threw

  After the Ape, who thus prevented, flew,

  This house thus batter’d downe, the Soule possest a new.

  L.

  And whether by this change she lose or win,

  She comes out next, where the Ape would have gone in,

  Adam and

  Eve

  had mingled bloods, and now

  Like Chimiques equall fires, her temperate wombe

  Had stew’d and form’d it: and part did become

  A spungie liver, that did richly allow,

  Like a free conduit, on a high hils brow,

  Life keeping moisture unto every part;

  Part hardned it selfe to a thicker heart,

  Whose busie furnaces lifes spirits do impart.

  LI.

  Another part became the well of sense,

  The tender well-arm’d feeling braine, from whence,

  Those sinowie strings which do our bodies tie,

  Are raveld out; and fast there by one end,

  Did this Soule limbes, these limbes a soule attend;

  And now they joyn’d; keeping some quality

  Of every past shape, she knew treachery,

  Rapine, deceit, and lust, and ills enow

  To be a woman. Themech she is now,

  Sister and wife to Caine, Caine that first did plow.

  LII.

  Who ere thou beest that read’st this sullen Writ,

  Which just so much courts thee, as thou dost it,

  Let me arrest thy thoughts; wonder with mee,

  Why plowing, building, ruling and the rest,

  Or most of those arts, whence our lives are blest,

  By cursed Cains race invented be,

  And blest Seth vext us with Astronomie,

  Ther’s nothing simply good, nor ill alone,

  Of every quality comparison,

  The onely measure is, and judge, opinion.

  THE ANNIVERSARIES

  CONTENTS

  A FUNERAL ELEGY.

  THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY.

  THE SECOND ANNIVERSARY

  A FUNERAL ELEGY.

  ‘Tis loss, to trust a tomb with such a guest,

  Or to confine her in a marble chest.

  Alas ! what’s marble, jet, or porphyry,

  Prized with the chrysolite of either eye,

  Or with those pearls and rubies which she was ?

  Join the two Indies in one tomb, ‘tis glass ;

  And so is all, to her materials,

  Though every inch were ten Escurials ;

  Yet she’s demolished ; can we keep her then

  In works of hands, or of the wits of men ? 10

  Can these memorials, rags of paper, give

  Life to that name, by which name they must live ?

  Sickly, alas ! short-lived, abortive be

  Those carcase verses, whose soul is not she ;

  And can she, who no longer would be she,

  Being such a tabernacle stoop to be

  In paper wrapp’d ; or when she would not lie

  In such an house, dwell in an elegy ?

  But ‘tis no matter ; we may well allow

  Verse to live so long as the world will now, 20

  For her death wounded it. The world contains

  Princes for arms, and counsellors for brains,

  Lawyers for tongues, divines for hearts, and more,

  The rich for stomachs, and for backs the poor ;

  The officers for hands, merchants for feet,

  By which remote and distant countries meet ;

  But those fine spirits, which do tune and set

  This organ, are those pieces which beget

  Wonder and love ; and these were she ; and she

  Being spent, the world must needs dec
repit be. 30

  For since death will proceed to triumph still,

  He can find nothing, after her, to kill,

  Except the world itself, so great as she.

  Thus brave and confident may nature be,

  Death cannot give her such another blow,

  Because she cannot such another show.

  But must we say she’s dead ? may ‘t not be said,

  That as a sunder’d clock is piecemeal laid,

  Not to be lost, but by the maker’s hand

  Repolish’d, without error then to stand, 40

  Or as the Afric Niger stream enwombs

  Itself into the earth, and after comes

  — Having first made a natural bridge, to pass

  For many leagues — far greater than it was,

  May ‘t not be said, that her grave shall restore

  Her, greater, purer, firmer than before ?

  Heaven may say this, and joy in ‘t, but can we

  Who live, and lack her here, this vantage see ?

  What is ‘t to us, alas ! if there have been

  An angel made a throne, or cherubin ? 50

  We lose by ‘t : and as agèd men are glad

  Being tasteless grown, to joy in joys they had,

  So now the sick, starved world must feed upon

  This joy, that we had her, who now is gone.

  Rejoice then, nature, and this world, that you,

  Fearing the last fires hastening to subdue

  Your force and vigour, ere it were near gone,

  Wisely bestow’d and laid it all on one ;

  One, whose clear body was so pure and thin,

  Because it need disguise no thought within ; 60

  ‘Twas but a through-light scarf her mind to enroll,

  Or exhalation breathed out from her soul ;

  One whom all men, who durst no more, admired ;

  And whom, whoe’er had worth enough, desired ;

  As when a temple ‘s built, saints emulate

  To which of them it shall be consecrate.

  But as, when heaven looks on us with new eyes,

  Those new stars every artist exercise ;

  What place they should assign to them they doubt,

  Argue, and agree not, till those stars go out ; 70

  So the world studied whose this piece should be,

  Till she can be nobody’s else, nor she ;

  But like a lamp of balsamum, desired

  Rather to adorn than last, she soon expired.

  Clothed in her virgin white integrity

  — For marriage, though it doth not stain, doth dye —

  To ‘scape th’ infirmities which wait upon

  Woman, she went away before she was one ;

  And the world’s busy noise to overcome,

  Took so much death as served for opium ; 80

  For though she could not, nor could choose to die,