JOHN DONNE
The Good-Morrow
1. I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
2. Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned1 till then?
3. But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
4. Or snorted2 we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?
5. ’Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies3 be.
6. If ever any beauty I did see,
7. Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.
8. And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
9. Which watch not one another out of fear;
10. For love, all love of other sights controls4,
11. And makes one little room an everywhere.
12. Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
13. Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,
14. Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.
15. My face in thine5 eye, thine in mine appears,
16. And true plain6 hearts do in the faces rest;
17. Where can we find two better hemispheres,
18. Without sharp north, without declining7 west?
19. Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;
20. If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
21. Love so alike, that none do slacken8, none can die.
1
weaned – breast-feeding
2
snorted - snored
3
fancies - fantasies
4
controls - limits
5
thine - your
6
plain – truthful, honest
7
declining – (here) descending
8
slacken - decrease in strength
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
1 As virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say
The breath goes now, and some say, No:
2 So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.
3 Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears,
Men reckon what it did, and meant;
But trepidation9 of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.
4 Dull sublunary10 lovers' love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented11 it.
5 But we by a love so much refined,
That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured12 of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.
6 Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach13, but an expansion,
Like gold to airy thinness beat.
7 If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two;
Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the other do.
8 And though it in the center sit,
Yet when the other far doth roam,
It leans and hearkens14 after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.
9 Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like th' other foot, obliquely15 run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just16,
And makes me end where I begun.
9
trepidation – trembling, vibrating motion
10
sublunary – under the moon
11
be elemented by – be made of
12
inter-assured – mutually confident
13
breach – break, gap
14
hearkens - listens
15
obliquely – at an angle, indirectly
16
just - perfect
The Flea
1 Mark17 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 maidenhead18;
Yet this enjoys before it woo;
And pampered19 swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more than we would do!
2 O stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, yea, more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.
Though parents grudge, and you, we’re met,
And cloistered20 in these living walls of jet21.
Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that self-murder added be,
And sacrilege22, three sins in killing three.
3 Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled23 thy nail in blood of innocence?
Wherein24 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 thyself nor me the weaker now.
’Tis true; then learn how false fears be;
Just so much honour, when thou yield’st to me,
Will waste25, as this flea’s death took life from thee.
17
mark – observe; examine
18
maidenhead - virginity
19
pampered - indulged or fattened
20
cloistered – protected, sheltered
21
jet - a very dark, semi-precious stone
22
sacrilege - refers to the act of stealing something that belongs to the Church
23
purpled - bloodied
24
wherein – how, in what way
25
waste – lose, sacrifice
Song
1. Go and catch a falling star,
2. Get with child a mandrake26 root,
3. Tell me where all past years are,
4. Or who cleft27 the devil’s foot,
5. Teach me to hear mermaids singing,
6. Or to keep off envy’s stinging,
7. And find
8. What wind
9. Serves to advance28 an honest mind.
10. If thou be’st29 born to strange sights,
11. Things invisible to see,
12. Ride ten thousand days and nights,
13. Till age snow white hairs on thee,
14. Thou, when thou return’st, wilt30 tell me,
15. All strange wonders that befell31 thee,
16. And swear,
17. No where
18. Lives a woman true and fair32.
19. If thou find’st one, let me know,
20. Such a pilgrimage were sweet;
21. Yet do not, I would not go,
22. Though at next door we might meet,
23. Though she were true, when you met her,
24. And last, till you write your letter,
25. Yet she
26. Will be
27. False33, ere34 I come, to two, or three.
26
mandrake - a kind of tuber that often resembles a human, legendary for its magical properties
27
cleft – divided in two
28
advance – to further, support
29
be’st - be
30
wilt - will
31
befell – happened to
32
true and fair - romantically faithful, and beautiful
33
false - sexually unfaithful
34
ere - before
HOLY SONNETS – SONNET X
1. D EATH be not proud, though some have called thee
2. Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art35 not so,
3. For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost36 overthrow,
4. Die not, poor death, nor yet canst37 thou kill me.
5. From rest and sleep, which but thy38 pictures39 bee,
6. Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
7. And soonest our best men with thee do go,
8. Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.
9. Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
10. And dost with poyson, war, and sickness dwell,
11. And poppie40, or charmes41 can make us sleep as well,
12. And better then thy stroke42; why swell'st43 thou then?
13. One short sleep past, wee wake eternally,
14. And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
HOLY SONNETS – SONNET XIV
1. BATTER44 my heart, three person'd God; for, you
2. As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
3. That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
4. Your force, to break, blow, burn and make me new.
5. I, like an usurp’d town45, to another due46,
6. Labour to admit you, but Oh, to no end,
7. Reason your viceroy47 in me, me should defend,
8. But is captiv’d, and proves weak or untrue48.
9. Yet dearely I love you and would be loved faine49,
10. But am betroth’d unto50 your enemie:
11. Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
12. Take me to you, imprison me, for I
13. Except you enthrall51 me, never shall be free,
14. Nor ever chaste52, except you ravish53 me.
35
art - archaic form of "are."
36
dost - archaic 2nd person sing. present form of "do." The usage here in line 2, for instance, simply emphasizes
that Death thinks he really does "overthrow" (i.e. kill) people, an assumption the speaker counters in the
following line.
37
canst - The archaic second person singular present form of "can."
38
thy - archaic form of "your."
39
pictures - here it simply means images, with possible connotations of paintings/artworks. Essentially, a dead
person looks like someone resting or asleep
40
poppie - reference to drugs, particularly those of the opioid family, which are derived from the poppy plant.
Opium was a popular drug in the 17th century and induces a sleepy, dream-like state.
41
charmes – reference to magic and spells
42
stroke - touch, referring to the moment when Death comes to someone.
43
swell’st - an abbreviation of "swellest," which is an archaic version of "swell up."
44
batter - hit repeatedly
45
usurp’d town - one that has been taken over by an enemy
46
due - controlled by someone else, i.e., by an enemy force
47
viceroy - someone appointed to rule in place of a ruler, such as the governor of a colony
48
untrue - unfaithful
49
faine - gladly, with pleasure
50
betroth'd unto – married to
51
entrall - captivate someone's attention
52
chaste - abstaining from extramarital sex
53
ravish - give someone intense sexual pleasure or to sexually assault someone
