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...
lust disease thee
Lust-bred diseases rot thee.
men dust ambitious
When my mouth shall be filled with dust, and the worm shall feed, and feed sweetly upon me, when the ambitious man shall have no satisfaction if the poorest alive tread upon him, nor the poorest receive any contentment in being made equal to princes, for they shall be equal but in dust.
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.
life critical courses
Our critical day is not the very day of our death; but the whole course of our life.
children yesterday sorrow
Old grandsires talk of yesterday with sorrow, And for our children we reserve tomorrow.
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.
soul progress deathless
I sing the progress of a deathless soul.
honesty integrity yield
I call not that virginity a virtue, which resideth onely in the bodies integrity; much less if it be with a purpose of perpetually keeping it: for then it is a most inhumane vice. - But I call that Virginity a virtue which is willing and desirous to yield it self upon honest and lawfull terms, when just reason requireth; and until then, is kept with a modest chastity of body and mind.
except nor shall
For I / Except you enthrall me, never shall be free, / Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
actions evil good wicked worse
For good and evil in our actions meet; wicked is not much worse than indiscreet
church himself man
For as every man is a world in himself, so every man is a church in himself
thinking poor true-you
Poor heretics there be,Which think to establish dangerous constancy,But I have told them, ‘Since you will be true,You shall be true to them, who are false to you.
coming holy instrument saints shall since thy tune
Since I am coming to that holy room, / Where, with thy quire of Saints for evermore, / I shall be made thy Music; As I come / I tune the instrument here at the door, / And what I must do then, think here before.
angel blow earth
At the round earth's imagined corners, blow your trumpets, angels.