John Donne - Delphi Poets Series
Page 31
Of essentiall ioy in this life and in the next.
But pause, My soule, and study ere thou fall
On accidentall ioyes, th’essentiall.
Still before Accessories doe abide
A triall, must the principall be tride.
And what essentiall ioy canst thou expect
Here vpon earth? what permanent effect
Of transitory causes? Dost thou loue
Beauty? (And Beauty worthy’st is to moue)
Poore couse’ned cose’nor, that she, and that thou,
Which did begin to liue, are neither now.
You are both fluid, chang’d since yesterday;
Next day repaires, (but ill) last dayes decay.
Nor are, (Although the riuer keepe the name)
Yesterdayes waters, and to daies the same.
So flowes her face, & thine eies, neither now
That Saint, nor Pilgrime, which your louing row
Concernd, remaines, but whil’st you thinke you bee
Constant, you’are hourely in inconstancee.
Honour may haue pretence vnto our loue,
Because that God did liue so long aboue
Without this Honour, and then lou’d it so,
That he at last made Creatures to bestow
Honour on him; not that he needed it,
But that, to his hands, man might grow more fit.
But since all honours from inferiours flow,
(For they doe giue it; Princes doe but show
Whom they would haue so honord) and that this
On such opinions, and capacities
Is built, as rise, and fall, to more and lesse,
Alas, tis but a casuall happinesse.
Hath euer any man to’himselfe assigned
This or that happiness, to’arrest his minde,
But that another man, which takes a worse,
Thinke him a foole for hauing tane that course?
They who did labour Babels tower to’erect,
Might haue considered, that for that effect,
All this whole solid Earth could not allow
Nor furnish forth Materials enow;
And that his Center, to raise such a place
Was farre too little, to haue beene the Base;
No more affoords this worlds, foundatione
To erect true ioye, were all the meanes in one.
But as the Heathen made them seuerall gods,
Of all Gods Benefits, and all his Rods,
(For as the Wine, and Corne, and Onions are
Gods vnto them, so Agues bee, and warre)
And as by changing that whole precious Gold
To such small copper coynes, they lost the old,
And lost their onely God, who euer must
Be fought alone, and not in such a thrust,
So much mankind true happinesse mistakes;
No Ioye enioyes that man, that many makes.
Then, soule, to thy first pitch worke vpon againe;
Know that all lines which circles doe containe,
For once that they the Center touch, doe touch
Twice the circumference; and be thou such.
Double on heauen, thy thoughts on earth emploid;
All will not serue; Onely who haue enioyd
The sight of God, in fulnesse, can thinke it;
For it is both the obiect, and the wit.
This is essentiall ioye, where neither hee
Can suffer Diminution, nor wee;
Tis such a full, and such a filling good;
Had th’Angels once look’d on him, they had stood.
To fill the place of one of them, or more,
Shee whom we celebrate, is gone before.
Shee, who had Here so much essentiall ioy.
As no chance could distract, much lesse destroy;
Who with Gods presence was acquainted so,
(Hearing, and speaking to him) as to know
His face, in any naturall Stone, or Tree,
Better then when in Images they bee:
Who kept by diligent deuotion,
Gods Image, in such reparation,
Within her heart, that what decay was growen,
Was her first Parents fault, and not her own:
Who being solicited to any Act,
Still heard God pleading his safe precontract;
Who by a faithfull confidence, was here
Betrothed to God, and now is married there,
Whose twilights were more cleare, then our mid-day,
Who dreamt deuoutlier, then most vse to pray;
Who being here fild with grace, yet stroue to bee,
Both where more grace, & more capacitee
At once is giuen: she to Heauen is gone,
Who made this world in some proportion
A heauen, and here, became vnto vs all,
Ioye, (as our ioyes admit) essentiall.
But could this low world ioyes essentiall touch,
Of accidental ioyes in both places.
Heauens accidentall ioies would passe them much.
How poore and lame, must then our casuall bee?
If thy Prince will his subiects to call thee
My Lord, and this doe swell thee, thou art than,
By being a greater, growen to be lesse Man,
When no Physician of Reders can speake,
A ioyfull casuall violence may breake
A dangerous Apostem in thy brest;
And whilst thou ioyest in this, the dangerous rest,
The bag may rise vp, and so strangle thee.
What eye was casuall, may euer bee.
What should the Nature change? Or make the same
Certaine, which was but casuall, when it came?
All casuall ioye doth loud and plainly say,
Onely by comming, that it can away.
Onely in Heauen ioies strength is neuer spent;
And accidentall things are permanent.
Ioy of a soules arriuall neere decaies;
For that soule euer ioyes & euer staies.
Ioy that their last great Consummation
Approches in the resurrection;
When earthly bodies more celestiall
Shalbe, then Angels were, for they could fall;
This kind of ioy doth euery day admit
Degrees of grouth, but none of loosing it.
In this fresh ioy, tis no small part, that shee,
Shee, in whose goodnesse, he that names degree,
Doth iniure her; (Tis losse to be cald best,
There where the stuffe is not such as the rest)
Shee, who left such a body, as euen shee
Onely in Heauen could learne, how it can bee
Made better; for shee rather was two soules,
Or like to full, on both sides written Rols,
Where eies might read vpon the outward skin,
As strong Records for God, as mindes within,
Shee, who by making a full perfection grow,
Peeces a Circle, and still keepes it so,
Long’d for, and longing for’it, to heauen is gon,
Where shee receiues, and giues addition.
Conclusion.
Here in a place, where mis-deuotion frames
A thousand praiers to Saints, whose very names
The ancient Church knew not, Heauen knowes not yet,
And where, what lawes of Poetry admit,
Lawes of Religion, haue at least the same,
Immortall Maid, I might inuoke thy name.
Could any Saint prouoke that appetit,
Thou here shouldst make mee a french conuertite.
But thou wouldst not; nor wouldst thou be content,
To take this, for my second yeeres true Rent,
Did this Coine beare any other stampe, then his,
That gaue thee power to doe me, to say this.
Since his will is, that to posteritee,
Thou shouldest for life, & death, a patterne bee,
The purpose, and th’Authority is his;
Thou art the Proclamation, and I ame
The Trumpet, at whose voice the people came.
FINIS
LATIN POEMS
CONTENTS
DE LIBRO CUM MUTUARETUR IMPRESSO
AMICISSIMO, ET MERITISSIMO BEN. JOHNSON
TO MR. GEORGE HERBERT
A SHEAF OF SNAKES
TRANSLATED OUT OF GAZÆUS, VOTA AMICO FACTA. FOL.160
DE LIBRO CUM MUTUARETUR IMPRESSO
DOMI A PUERIS FRUSTATIM LACERATO; ET
POST REDDITO MANUSCRIPTO
Doctissimo Amicissimoque V.
D. D. Andrews
PARTURIUNT madido quae nixu praela, recepta,
Sed quae scripta manu, sunt veneranda magis,
Qui liber in pluteos, blattis cinerique relictos,
Si modo sit praeli sanguine tinctus, abit;
Accedat calamo scriptus, reverenter habetur,
Involat et veterum scrinia summa Patrum.
Dicat Apollo modum; Pueros infundere libro
Nempe vetustatem canitiemque novo.
Nil mirum, medico pueros de semine natos,
Haec nova fata libro posse dedisse novo.
Si veterem faciunt pueri, qui nuperus, Annon
Ipse Pater juvenem me dabit arte senem?
Hei miseris senibus! nos vertit dura senectus
Omnes in pueros, neminem at in juvenem.
Hoc tibi servasti praestandum, Antique Dierum,
Quo viso, et vivit, et juvenescit Adam.
Interea, infirmae fallamus taedia vitae,
Libris, et Coelorum aemulâ amicitiâ.
Hos inter, qui a te mihi redditus iste libellus,
Non mihi tam charus, tam meus, ante fuit.
EPIGRAMMA
Transiit in Sequanam Moenus; Victoris in aedes;
Et Francofurtum, te revehente, meat.
AMICISSIMO, ET MERITISSIMO BEN. JOHNSON
In Vulponem
QUOD arte ausus es hic tuâ, Poeta,
Si auderent hominum Deique juris
Consulti, veteres sequi aemularierque,
O omnes saperemus ad salutem.
His sed sunt veteres araneosi;
Tam nemo veterum est sequutor, ut tu
Illos quod sequeris novator audis.
Fac tamen quod agis; tuique prima
Libri canitie induantur horâ:
Nam chartis pueritia est neganda,
Nascanturque senes, oportet, illi
Libri, queis dare vis perennitatem.
Priscis, ingenium facit, laborque
Te parem; hos superes, ut et futuros,
Ex nostrâ vitiositate sumas,
Quâ priscos superamus, et futuros.
TO MR. GEORGE HERBERT
With one of my seals, of the anchor and Christ
QUI prius assuetus Serpentum fasce Tabellas
Signare, (haec nostrae symbola parva Domus)
Adscitus domui Domini, patrioque relicto
Stemmate, nanciscor stemmata jure nova.
Hinc mihi Crux primo quae fronti impressa lavacro,
Finibus extensis, anchora facta patet.
Anchorae in effigiem Crux tandem desinit ipsam,
Anchora fit tandem Crux tolerata diu.
Hoc tamen ut fiat, Christo vegetatur ab ipso
Crux, et ab Affixo, est Anchora facta, jesu.
Nec Natalitiis pen;tus serpentibus orbor,
Non ita dat Deus, ut auferat ante data.
Quâ sapiens, Dos est; Quâ terram lambit et ambit,
Pestis; At in nostra fit Medicina Cruce,
Serpens; fixa Cruci si sit Natura; Crucique
A fixo, nobis, Gratia tota fluat.
Omnia cum Crux sint, Crux Anchora facta, sigillum
Non tam dicendum hoc quam Catechismus erit.
Mitto nec exigua, exiguft sub imagine, dona,
Pignora amicitiae, et munera; Vota, preces.
Plura tibi accumulet, sanctus cognominis, Ille
Regia qui flavo Dona sigillat Equo.
A SHEAF OF SNAKES
A SHEAFE Of Snakes used heretofore to be
My Seal, The Crest of our poore Family.
Adopted in Gods Family, and so
Our old Coat lost, unto new armes I go.
The Crosse (my seal at Baptism) spred below,
Does, by that form, into an Anchor grow.
Crosses grow Anchors; Bear, as thou shouldst do
Thy Crosse, and that Crosse grows an Anchor too.
But he that makes our Crosses Anchors thus,
Is Christ, who there is crucifi’d for us.
Yet may I, with this, my first Serpents hold,
God gives new blessings, and yet leaves the old;
The Serpent, may, as wise, my pattern be;
My poison, as be feeds on dust, that’s me.
And as he rounds the Earth to murder sure,
My death he is, but on the Crosse, my cure.
Crucifie nature then, and then implore
All Grace from him, crucified there before;
When all is Crosse, and that Crosse Anchor grown,
This Seal’s a Catechism, not a Seal alone.
Under that little Seal great gifts I send,
[Wishes,] and prayers, pawns, and fruits of a friend.
And may that Saint which rides in our great Seal,
To you, who bear his name, great bounties deal.
TRANSLATED OUT OF GAZÆUS, VOTA AMICO FACTA. FOL.160
GOD grant thee thine own wish, and grant thee mine,
Thou, who dost, best friend, in best things outshine;
May thy soul, ever chearfull, nere know cares,
Nor thy life, ever lively, know gray haires.
Nor thy hand, ever open, know base holds,
Nor thy purse, ever plump, know pleits, or folds.
Nor thy tongue, ever true, know a false thing,
Nor thy word, ever mild, know quarrelling.
Nor thy works, ever equall, know disguise,
Nor thy fame, ever pure, know contumelies.
Nor thy prayers, know low objects, still Divine;
God grant thee thine own wish, and grant thee mine.
DOUBTFUL VERSES
These 24 spurious poems were unlikely to have been written by Donne, but appeared at various times after his death. Several of the poems contain similar themes to his famous works, e.g. On a Flea on his Mistress’s Bosom, but they are inferior imitations of Donne’s own poetic wit.
Please note: these poems are not included in the following alphabetical and chronological contents tables.
CONTENTS
Absence
Love’s War
On a Flea on his Mistress’s Bosom
The Portrait
Love-Sonnet (I.)
Love-Sonnet (II.)
A Warning
To the Young Gentlewomen
Believe your Glass
Fortune never Fails
To Mrs. Boulstred
To a Painted Lady
Love’s Power
Love and Reason
To a Lady of a Dark Complexion
Borrowing
Supping Hours
The Smith
The Lady and her Viol
A Paradox
Sun, Begone
If She Deride
Love and Wit
Dr. Donne’s Farewell to the World
Absence
That time and absence proves
Rather helps than hurts to loves.
ABSENCE, hear thou my protestation
Against thy strength,
Distance, and length;
Do what thou canst for alteration,
For hearts of truest mettle 5
Absence doth join and time doth settle.
Who loves a mistress of such quality,
His mind hath found
Affection’s ground
B
eyond time, place; and all mortality; 10
To hearts that cannot vary
Absence is present, Time doth tarry.
My senses want their outward motion,
Which now within
Reason doth win, 15
Redoubled by her secret notion;
Like rich men that take pleasure
In hiding more than handling treasure.
By absence this good means I gain,
That I can catch her, 20
Where none can watch her,
In some close corner of my brain;
There I embrace and kiss her,
And so enjoy her, and none miss her.
Love’s War
TILL I have peace with thee, war other men,
And when I have peace, can I leave thee then?
All other wars are scrupulous; only thou
O free fair city, mayst thyself allow
To any one. In Flanders, who can tell 5
Whether the master press, or men rebel?
Only we know, that which most idiots say,
They must bear blows which come to part the fray.
France in her lunatic giddiness did hate
Ever our men, yea, and our God, of late; 10
Yet she relies upon our angels well,
Which ne’er return, no more than they which fell.
Sick Ireland is with a strange war possest,
Like to an ague, now raging, now at rest,
Which time will cure; yet it must do her good 15
If she were purg’d, and her head-vein let blood;
And Midas joys our Spanish journeys give;
We touch all gold, but find no food to live;
And I should be in that hot parching clime
To dust and ashes turned before my time. 20
To mew me in a ship is to enthral
Me in a prison that were like to fall;
Or in a cloister, save that there men dwell
In a calm heaven, here in a swaying hell.
Long voyages are long consumptions, 25
And ships are carts for executions;
Yea, they are deaths; is ’t not all one to fly
Into another world, as ’tis to die?
Here let me war; in these arms let me lie:
Here let me parley, batter, bleed, and die. 30
Thine arms imprison me, and my arms thee;
Thy heart thy ransom is; take mine for me.
Other men war, that they their rest may gain,
But we will rest that we may fight again.
Those wars th’ ignorant, these th’ experienced love; 35
There we are always under, here above.
There engines far off breed a just true fear;
Near thrusts, pikes, stabs, yea, bullets, hurt not here.