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...
benefit draws hook jaws sticks takes
There is a hook in every benefit that sticks in his jaws that takes the benefit, and draws him whither the benefactor will
brave braver doth hid spring
I have done one brave thing - Than all the Worthies did; And yet a braver thence doth spring - Which is to keep that hid
busy call curtains dost motions seasons thou thy unruly
Busy old fool, unruly Sun, / Why dost thou thus, / Through windows, and through curtains call on us? / Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?
batter seek shine three
Batter my heart, three personed God; for you / As yet but knock, breathe, shine and seek to mend.
god imagine
Imagine God to be at play with us, but a gamester...
shall thy
If yet I have not all thy love, / Dear, I shall never have it all.
bodies body call chastity honest inhumane integrity itself keeping kept lawful less modest purpose reason until virginity virtue willing yield
I call not that virginity a virtue, which resideth only 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 itself upon honest and lawful 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.
died god love talk
I long to talk with some old lover's ghost, / Who died before the god of love was born.
alike loves none thou
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I love so alike that none can slacken, none can die.
mine
But I do nothing upon myself, and yet I am mine own Executioner.
mine
But I do nothing upon myself, and yet am mine own executioner.
honesty children fall
Goe and catche a falling starre, Get with child a mandrake root, Tell me, where all past yeares are, Or who cleft the Divel's foot. Teach me to hear Mermaides' singing, Or to keep of envies stinging, And finde What winde Serves to advance an honest minde.
men doubt phrases
Oft from new truths, and new phrase, new doubts grow, As strange attire aliens the men we know.