_>
Wonder of Beautie, Goddesse of my sense,
You that have taught my soule to love aright,
You in whose limbes are natures chief expense
Fitt instrument to serve your matchless spright,
If ever you have felt the miserie 5
Of being banish'd from your best desier,
By Absence, Time, or Fortunes tyranny,
Sterving for cold, and yet denied for fier:
Deare mistresse pittie then the like effects
The which in mee your absence makes to flowe, 10
And haste their ebb by your divine aspect
In which the pleasure of my life doth growe:
Stay not so long for though it seem a wonder
You keepe my bodie and my soule asunder.
Wonder of Beautie, Goddesse of my sense,
You that have taught my soule to love aright,
You in whose limbes are natures chief expense
Fitt instrument to serve your matchless spright,
If ever you have felt the miserie 5
Of being banish'd from your best desier,
By Absence, Time, or Fortunes tyranny,
Sterving for cold, and yet denied for fier:
Deare mistresse pittie then the like effects
The which in mee your absence makes to flowe, 10
And haste their ebb by your divine aspect
In which the pleasure of my life doth growe:
Stay not so long for though it seem a wonder
You keepe my bodie and my soule asunder.
John Donne
Thy soule is bodyd within thy quiet brest
In safety, free from trouble and unrest.
Thou fearst no ill because thou dost no ill, 15
Like mistress of thy selfe, thy thought, and will,
Obey thy mind, a mind for ever such
As all may prayse, but none admire too much.
Then come, Chast Love, choyse part of womankind
Infuse chast thoughts into my loving mind. 20
[Elegy. To Chast Love. _O'F_]
[5 feares, _Ed_: feares _O'F_]
[6 teares; _Ed_: teares _O'F_]
[7 true, _Ed_: true _O'F_]
[9 in, _Ed_: in _O'F_]
[10 move; _Ed_: move _O'F_]
[15 ill, _Ed_: ill _O'F_]
[16 will, _Ed_: will _O'F_]
_Upon his scornefull Mistresse. Elegy. _
Cruell since that thou dost not feare the curse
W^{ch} thy disdayne, and my despayre procure,
My prayer for thee shall torment thee worse
Then all the payne thou coudst thereby endure.
May, then, that beauty w^{ch} I did conceave 5
In thee above the height of heavens course,
When first my Liberty thou didst bereave,
Bee doubled on thee and with doubled force.
Chayne thousand vassalls in like thrall with mee,
W^{ch} in thy glory mayst thou still despise, 10
As the poore Trophyes of that victory
Which thou hast onely purchasd by thine eyes;
And when thy Triumphs so extended are
That there is nought left to bee conquered,
Mayst thou with the great Monarchs mournfull care 15
Weepe that thine Hono^{rs} are so limited;
So thy disdayne may melt it selfe to love
By an unlookd for and a wondrous change,
W^{ch} to thy selfe above the rest must prove
In all th'effects of love paynefully strange, 20
While wee thy scorned subjects live to see
Thee love the whole world, none of it love thee.
[Upon his scornefull Mistresse. _O'F_: _no title_, _B_, _which
adds note_, This hath relation to 'When by thy scorne'. _See_
The Apparition, _p. _ 191]
[2 despayre _B_: disdayne _O'F_
procure, _Ed_: procure _O'F_]
[6 course, _Ed_: course _O'F_]
[7 bereave, _Ed_: bereave _O'F_]
[8 force. _Ed_: force _O'F_]
[9 Chayne _B_: Stay _O'F_ mee, _Ed_: mee _O'F_]
[10 despise, _Ed_: despise _O'F_]
[12 eyes; _Ed_: eyes _O'F_]
[14 conquered, _Ed_: conquered _O'F_]
[16 limited; _Ed_: limited _O'F_]
[18 change, _Ed_: change _O'F_]
[20 strange, _Ed_: strange _O'F_]
<_Absence.
_>
Wonder of Beautie, Goddesse of my sense,
You that have taught my soule to love aright,
You in whose limbes are natures chief expense
Fitt instrument to serve your matchless spright,
If ever you have felt the miserie 5
Of being banish'd from your best desier,
By Absence, Time, or Fortunes tyranny,
Sterving for cold, and yet denied for fier:
Deare mistresse pittie then the like effects
The which in mee your absence makes to flowe, 10
And haste their ebb by your divine aspect
In which the pleasure of my life doth growe:
Stay not so long for though it seem a wonder
You keepe my bodie and my soule asunder.
FINIS.
<_Tongue-tied Love. _>
Faire eies do not think scorne to read of Love
That to your eies durst never it presume,
Since absence those sweet wonders do<th> remove
That nourish thoughts, yet sence and wordes consume;
This makes my pen more hardy then my tongue, 5
Free from my feare yet feeling my desire,
To utter that I have conceal'd so long
By doing what you did yourself require.
Believe not him whom Love hath left so wise
As to have power his owne tale for to tell, 10
For childrens greefes do yield the loudest cries,
And cold desires may be expressed well:
In well told Love most often falsehood lies,
But pittie him that only sighes and dies.
FINIS.
[<Absence. > <Tongue-tied Love. > _Ed_: _whole sonnets without
titles in_ _L74_: _the last six lines of the second appear
among Donne's poems in_ _B_, _O'F_, _S96_ <Tongue-tied Love. >]
[12 cold desires] coldest Ayres _O'F_]
<_Love, if a God thou art. _>
Love if a god thou art
then evermore thou must
Bee mercifull and just;
If thou bee just, o wherefore doth thy dart
Wound mine alone and not my mistresse hart? 5
If mercifull, then why
Am I to payne reservd
Who have thee truely serv'd,
When shee that by thy powre sets not a fly
Laughs thee to scorne and lives at liberty? 10
Then if a God thou woulds accounted bee,
Heale mee like her, or else wound her like mee.
<_Great Lord of Love. _>
Greate Lord of love, how busy still thou art
To give new wounds and fetters to my hart!
Is't not enough that thou didst twice before
It so mangle
And intangle 5
By sly arts
of false harts.
