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...
today sun
Yesternight the sun went hence, And yet is here today.
mean perfect desire
And if there be any addition to knowledge, it is rather a new knowledge than a greater knowledge; rather a singularity in a desire of proposing something that was not knownat all beforethananimproving, anadvancing, a multiplying of former inceptions; and by that means, no knowledge comes to be perfect.
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.
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.
crystal golden pleasures silver
Come live with me, and be my love, And we will some new pleasures prove, Of golden sands, and crystal brooks, With silken lines, and silver hooks.
god neglect noise rattling whining
I neglect God and his Angels, for the noise of a fly, for the rattling of a coach, for the whining of a door.
wicked
Wicked is not much worse than indiscreet.