John Donne
John Donne
John Donnewas an English poet and a cleric in the Church of England. He is considered the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His works are noted for their strong, sensual style and include sonnets, love poems, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons. His poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor, especially compared to that of his contemporaries. Donne's style is characterised by abrupt openings and various paradoxes, ironies and dislocations...
running time air
I will not look upon the quickening sun, But straight her beauty to my sense shall run; The air shall note her soft, the fire most pure; Water suggest her clear, and the earth sure; Time shall not lose our passages.
good-night valentine clothes
A bride, before a "Good-night" could be said, Should vanish from her clothes into her bed, As souls from bodies steal, and are not spied. But now she's laid; what though she be? Yet there are more delays, for where is he? He comes and passeth through sphere after sphere; First her sheets, then her arms, then anywhere. Let not this day, then, but this night be thine; Thy day was but the eve to this, O Valentine.
stars princess fall
Up then, fair phoenix bride, frustrate the sun; Thyself from thine affection Takest warmth enough, and from thine eye All lesser birds will take their jollity. Up, up, fair bride, and call Thy stars from out their several boxes, take Thy rubies, pearls, and diamonds forth, and make Thyself a constellation of them all; And by their blazing signify That a great princess falls, but doth not die. Be thou a new star, that to us portends Ends of much wonder; and be thou those ends.
sports play loser
If I lose at play, I blaspheme; if my fellow loses, he blasphemes. So, God is always the loser.
pleasure ifs
Pleasure is none, if not diversified.
greatness men world
At most, the greatest persons are but great wens, and excrescences; men of wit and delightful conversation, but as morals for ornament, except they be so incorporated into the body of the world that they contribute something to the sustentation of the whole.
philosophy men differences
The difference between the reason of man and the instinct of the beast is this, that the beast does but know, but the man knows that he knows.
honesty truth alcohol
Festive alcohol sometimes leads to an excess of honesty.
waiting wish genius
We love and understand talent; we wish it be within us. The truly gifted, those exceptional few, must wait for the world to catch up.
happiness joy enjoyment
Enjoyment always has a spoiling, otherwise it cannot be so.
dating church noble
How many times go we to comedies, to masques, to places of great and noble resort, nay even to church only to see the company.
bling ugly levels
That which attempts to elevate the ugly to the level of beauty becomes neither; but an obscenity.
soul
That soul that can reflect upon itself, consider itself, is more than so.
heart mad may
Filled with her love, may I be rather grown Mad with much heart, then idiot with none.