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...
littles twins truth-and-falsehood
Though truth and falsehood be Near twins, yet truth a little elder is.
benefits sticks hook
There is hook in every benefit, that sticks in his jaws that takes that benefit, and draws him whither the benefactor will.
men ants superiority
Be more than man, or thou'rt less than an ant.
angel men understanding
In best understandings, sin began, Angels sinned first, then Devils, and then Man.
courage despair cowardice
Between cowardice and despair, valour is gendred.
executioners sabotage my-own
But I do nothing upon myself, and yet I am my own executioner.
flower men dust
And when a whirl-winde hath blowne the dust of the Churchyard into the Church, and man sweeps out the dust of the Church into the Church-yard, who will undertake to sift those dusts again, and to pronounce, This is the Patrician, this is the noble flower, and this the yeomanly, this the Plebian bran.
eye home long
Send home my long strayed eyes to me, Which (Oh) too long have dwelt on thee.
atheist men thinking
God affords no man the comfort, the false comfort of Atheism: He will not allow a pretending Atheist the power to flatter himself, so far, as to seriously think there is no God.
soul firsts doe
In the first minute that my soul is infused, the Image of God is imprinted in my soul; so forward is God in my behalf, and so early does he visit me.
infatuation take-me chaste
Take me to you, imprison me, for I, except you enthrall me, never shall be free, nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
nature law goal
Nature hath no goal though she hath law.
death exercise swimming
I would not that death should take me asleep. I would not have him merely seize me, and only declare me to be dead, but win me, and overcome me. When I must shipwreck, I would do it in a sea, where mine impotency might have some excuse; not in a sullen weedy lake, where I could not have so much as exercise for my swimming.
kind pity choke
Kind pity chokes my spleen.