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...
travel home banishment
To roam Giddily, and be everywhere but at home, Such freedom doth a banishment become.
two space done
Between these two, the denying of sins, which we have done, and the bragging of sins, which we have not done, what a space, what a compass is there, for millions of millions of sins!
sickness wells knows
Can there be worse sickness, than to know that we are never well, nor can be so?
health physicians neutrality
There is no health; physicians say that we, at best, enjoy but neutrality.
pleasure ifs
Pleasure is none, if not diversified.
men islands
No man is an island unto himself.
friendship eye faces
Thy face is mine eye, and mine is thine.
heart cheerful god-love
As God loves a cheerful giver, so he also loves a cheerful taker. Who takes hold of his gifts with a glad heart.
men heaven
Man hath weaved out a net, and this net throwne upon the Heavens, and now they are his own.
solitude hell torment
Solitude is a torment which is not threatened in hell itself.
scripture example good-examples
Of all the commentaries on the Scriptures, good examples are the best.
pain sleep
Sleep is pain's easiest salve
exercise air long
We study health, and we deliberate upon our meats and drink and air and exercises, and we hew and we polish every stone that goes to that building; and so our health is a long and regular work. But in a minute a cannon batters all, overthrows all, demolishes all; a sickness unprevented for all our diligence, unsuspected for all our curiosity, nay, undeserved, if we consider only disorder, summons us, seizes us, possesses us, destroys us in an instant.
names virtue knows
Who knows his virtues name or place, hath none.