Collected Poems of John Donne
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Collected Poems of John Donne Complete and Unabridged JOHN DONNE , William Ralph Press Omaha www.williamralphpress.com No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Any other request to reprint, copy or quote should be submitted in writing to William Ralph Press. ISBN: 978-1-932023-48-0 A Reader’s Library Edition Collected Poems of John Donne © William Ralph PressAll Rights Reserved, except where otherwise noted Contents Introduction SONGS AND SONNETS The Flea The Good-Morrow Song ("Goe, and catch a falling starre...") Woman's Constancy The Undertaking The Sun Rising The Indifferent Love's Usury Canonization The Triple Fool Lovers' Infiniteness Song ("Sweetest Love, I doe not goe...") The Legacy A Feaver Air and Angels Breake of Day The Anniversary A Valediction of My Name, in the Window Twicknam Garden Valediction to His Book Community Love's Growth Love's Exchange Confined Love The Dream A Valediction of Weeping Love's Alchymy The Curse The Message A Nocturnal upon St. Lucie's Day Being the Shortest Day Witchcraft by a Picture The Bait The Apparition The Broken Heart A Valediction Forbidding Mourning The Extasie Love's Deity Love's Diet The Will The Funeral The Blossom The Primrose, Being at Mountgomery Castle upon the Hill, on Which It Is Situate The Relique The Damp The Dissolution A Jeat Ring Sent Negative Love The Prohibition The Expiration The Computation The Paradox Farewell to Love A Lecture upon the Shadow EPIGRAMS Epigrams ELEGIES Elegie I Elegie II Elegie III Elegie IV Elegie V Elegie VI Elegie VII Elegie VIII Elegie IX Elegie X Elegie XI Elegie XII Elegie XIII Elegie XIV Elegie XV Elegie XVI Elegie XVII Elegie XVIII To His Mistress Going to Bed EPITHALAMIONS An Epithalamion, or Marriage Song on the Lady Elizabeth, and Count Palatine, Being Married on St. Valentines Day Eclogue at the Marriage of the Earl of Somerset Epithalamion Made at Lincoln's Inne SATYRES Satyre I Satyre II Satyre III Satyre IV Satyre V LETTERS TO SEVERAL PERSONAGES The Storme The Calme To Sir Henry Wootton (Sir, More Than Kisses...) To Sir Henry Goodyere To Mr. Rowland Woodward To Sir Henry Wootton (Here's No More Newes than Vertue...) To the Countess of Bedford (Reason Is Our Soul's Left Hand...) To the Countess of Bedford (You Have Refin'd Me...) To Sir Edward Herbert, Now Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Being at the Siege of Julyers To the Countess of Bedford (T'have Written Then, When You Writ...) To the Countess of Bedford On New-Years Day To the Countess of Huntingdon (Man to God's Image; Eve...) To M(r.) I(zaak) W(alton) To M. T. W. (Hast thee harsh verse...) To M. T. W. (Pregnant Again with Th'Old Twins...) Incerto To M(r.) C(hristopher) B(rooke) To M(r.) S(amuel) B(rooke) To M(r.) B(asil) B(rooke) To M(r.) R(owland) W(oodward) To M. I. L. To M. I. P. To the E(arl) of D(oncaster), with Sixe Holy Sonnets To Sir H(enry) W(otton), at His Going Ambassadour to Venice To M(rs.) M(agdalen) H(erbert) To the Countess of Bedford (Honour Is So Sublime Perfection...) To the Countess of Huntingdon (That Unripe Side of Earth...) To the Countess of Bedford Begun in France, but Never Perfected A Letter to the Lady Carey, and Mrs. Essex Riche, from Amyens To the Countess of Salisbury, August, 1614 To the Countess of Bedford (You That Are She...) Sapho to Philænis ANATOMIE OF THE WORLD An Anatomy of the World A Funeral Elegie Of the Progress of the Soul EPICEDES AND OBSEQUIES Elegie on the Untimely Death of the Incomparable Prince Henry Obsequies to the Lord Harrington, Brother to the Lady Lucy, Countess of Bedford An Elegie on the Lady Markham Elegie on Mistris Boulstred Elegie on His Mistress Elegie On Himself Elegie Upon Mr. Thomas Coryat's Crudities Sonnet: The Token Elegie on the L(ord) C(hancellor) DIVINE POEMS The Progress of the Soul Holy Sonnets Divine Meditations The Cross Resurrection Imperfect An Hymn to the Saints, and to Marquess Hamylton The Annuntiation and Passion Goodfriday, 1613, Riding Westward The Litanie Upon the Translation of the Psalms by Sir Philip Sydney, and the Countess of Pembrook His Sister To Mr. Tilman after He Had Taken Orders A Hymn to Christ, at the Author's Last Going into Germany The Lamentations of Jeremy, for the Most Part According to Tremelius Hymn to God, My God, in My Sickness A Hymn to God the Father A POEM IN LATIN To Mr. George Herbert, with One of My Seal, of the Anchor and Christ About the Editor Also from William Ralph Press Introduction John Donne, 1572–1631, was born in London, England, and, as evidenced by the verse collected here, is one of the great English language poets and thinkers in modern history illuminating the human condition through a verse marked for its argument, metaphysical conceit, metaphorical illuminations, and deep passions, whether they be focussed on love, God (two of Donne’s favorite foci), or some other theme. While his poetry is dense, it is also inspiring, wise, and an essential and vital piece in the evolution of western verse. For this electronic volume, I have used three posthumously printed manuscripts of Donne’s poetry from 1633, 1635, and 1665 as reference points, generously provided by Texas A&M University. The overall presentation of the poems in this book is based on the structure of those. I have retained original spelling—and all of its inconsistencies—wherever is was feasible to do so, and by feasible I mean I made slight alterations to conform with modern grammatical expectations when not to do so would have likely caused confusion in a simple unreferenced reading of the material. So, for example, I have included the possessive apostrophe whenever it was required (omitted in all three original manuscripts). Also, if a variant spelling was misleading in its meaning because of common modern understanding, it too was updated. When versions of lines and poems contradicted each other—as they often did—I chose what I considered to be the most lucid, first to my perceived intent of the author, and then to a contemporary usage of English. Poems that had some level of questionability to their authorship were not included (as they often are for the sake of completeness in other more scholarly volumes of Donne’s verse), so what has been collected is a clear and full gathering of Donne’s poetic output in the most authentic presentation possible. Thank you for your patronage, and please enjoy this sixth volume of the Reader’s Library. —Neil Azevedo, 12/13/14 SONGS AND SONNETS PART I The Flea Marke but this flea, and marke in this, How little that which thou deny’st me is; It suck’d me first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea, our two bloods mingled bee; Thou know’st that this cannot be said A sinne, nor shame, nor losse of maidenhead, Yet this enjoyes before it wooe, And pamper’d swells with one blood made of two, And this, alas, is more than we would doe. Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare, Where we almost, yea more than maryed are. This flea is you and I, and this Our mariage bed, and mariage temple is; Though parents grudge, and you, w’are met, And cloysterd in these living walls of Jet. Though use make you apt to kill mee, Let not to that, selfe murder added bee, And sacrilege, three sinnes in killing three. Cruell and sodaine, hast thou since Purpled thy naile, in blood of innocence? Wherein could this flea guilty be, Except in that drop which it suckt from thee? Yet thou triumph’st, and saist that thou Find’st not thy selfe, nor me the weaker now; ‘Tis true, then learne how false, feares be; Just so much honor, when thou yeeld’st to mee, Will wast, as this flea’s death tooke life from thee. The Good-Morrow 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 plasures, childishly? Or snorted we in the seven-sleepers den? T’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 dream of thee. And now good-morrow to our waking soules, Which watch not one another out of feare; For 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. My face in thine eye, thine in mine appeares, And true plaine hearts doe in the faces rest, Where can we finde two fitter hemispheares Without sharpe North, without declining West? What ever dies, was not mixt equally; If our two loves be one, both thou and I Love just alike in all, none of these loves can die. Song ("Goe, and catch a falling starre...") Goe, and catch a falling starre, Get with childe a mandrake root, Tell me, where all past yeares are, Or who cleft the Devil’s foot, Teach me to heare Mermaids singing, Or to keepe off envies stinging, And finde What winde Serves to advance an honest minde.