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...
love saw white
Nurse, O my love is slain, I saw him go / O'er the white Alps alone.
age days hairs ride snow ten thousand white
Ride ten thousand days and nights,Till age snow white hairs on thee.
art bed centre shine thou thy
Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere,/ This bed thy centre is, these walls, thy sphere.
absent letters mingle speak thus
Sir, more than kisses, letters mingle souls; for, thus friends absent speak
princes
She is all States, and all Princes, I, / Nothing else is. / Princes do but play us.
add again attain love second till unto
Let us love nobly, and live, and add again years and years unto years, till we attain to write threescore: this is the second of our reign.
add again love unto
Let us love nobly, and live, and add again years and years unto years.
licence
Licence my roving hands, and let them goBefore, behind, between, above, below.
constant full love
Love is agrowing, to full constant light; and his first minute, after noon, is night.
eyes home send thee
Send home my long strayed eyes to me, Which too long have dwelt on thee
dream joys
So, if I dream I have you, I have you, / For all our joys are but fantastical.
poetry saying whining
I am two fools, I know, for loving, and for saying so in whining poetry.
faith left reason
Reason is our soul's left hand, faith her right.
balm earth general hath sap
The world's whole sap is sunk: / The general balm th' hydroptic earth hath drunk.