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...
catch child falling past
Go, and catch a falling star, / Get with child a mandrake root, / Tell me, where all past years are, / Or who cleft the Devil's foot.
shall thy
If yet I have not all thy love, / Dear, I shall never have it all.
alike equally loves none thou whatever
Whatever dies, was not mix'd equally ;If our two loves be one, or thou and I Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die.
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
heart love rags
My rags of heart can like, wish, and adore, but after one such love can love no more.
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.
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.
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.
heavens last
This is my play's last scene, here heavens appoint / My pilgrimage's last mile.
All day, the same our postures were, / And we said nothing all the day.
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.