Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ELEGY: 12. HIS PARTING FROM HER, by JOHN DONNE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Since she must go, and I must mourn, come night Last Line: As I will never look for less in you. Subject(s): Farewell; Parting | ||||||||
Since she must go, and I must mourn, come Night, Environ me with darkness, whilst I write: Shadow that hell unto me, which alone I am to suffer when my Love is gone. Alas the darkest Magick cannot do it, Thou and greate Hell to boot are shadows to it. Should Cinthia quit thee, Venus, and each starre, It would not forme one thought dark as mine are. I could lend thee obscureness now, and say, Out of my self, There should be no more Day, Such is already my felt want of sight, Did not the fires within me force a light. Oh Love, that fire and darkness should be mixt, Or to thy Triumphs soe strange torments fixt? Is't because thou thy self art blind, that wee Thy Martyrs must no more each other see? Or tak'st thou pride to break us on the wheel, And view old Chaos in the Pains we feel? Or have we left undone some mutual Right, Through holy fear, that merits thy despight? No, no. The falt was mine, impute it to me, Or rather to conspiring destinie, Which (since I lov'd for forme before) decreed, That I should suffer when I lov'd indeed: And therefore now, sooner then I can say, I saw the golden fruit, 'tis rapt away. Or as I had watcht one drop in a vast stream, And I left wealthy only in a dream. Yet Love, thou'rt blinder then thy self in this, To vex my Dove-like friend for my amiss: And, where my own sad truth may expiate Thy wrath, to make her fortune run my fate: So blinded Justice doth, when Favorites fall, Strike them, their house, their friends, their followers all. Was't not enough that thou didst dart thy fires Into our blouds, inflaming our desires, And made'st us sigh and glow, and pant, and burn, And then thy self into our flame did'st turn? Was't not enough, that thou didst hazard us To paths in love so dark, so dangerous: And those so ambush'd round with houshold spies, And over all, thy husbands towring eyes That flam'd with oylie sweat of jealousie: Yet went we not still on with Constancie? Have we not kept our guards, like spie on spie? Had correspondence whilst the foe stood by? Stoln (more to sweeten them) our many blisses Of meetings, conference, embracements, kisses? Shadow'd with negligence our most respects? Varied our language through all dialects, Of becks, winks, looks, and often under-boards Spoak dialogues with our feet far from our words? Have we prov'd all these secrets of our Art, Yea, thy pale inwards, and thy panting heart? And, after all this passed Purgatory, Must sad divorce make us the vulgar story? First let our eyes be rivited quite through Our turning brains, and both our lips grow to: Let our armes clasp like Ivy, and our fear Freese us together, that we may stick here, Till Fortune, that would rive us, with the deed Strain her eyes open, and it make them bleed: For Love it cannot be, whom hitherto I have accus'd, should such a mischief doe. Oh Fortune, thou'rt not worth my least exclame, And plague enough thou hast in thy own shame. Do thy great worst, my friend and I have armes, Though not against thy strokes, against thy harmes. Rend us in sunder, thou canst not divide Our bodies so, but that our souls are ty'd, And we can love by letters still and gifts, And thoughts and dreams; Love never wanteth shifts. I will not look upon the quickning Sun, But straight her beauty to my sense shall run; The ayre shall note her soft, the fire most pure; Water suggest her clear, and the earth sure. Time shall not lose our passages; the Spring How fresh our love was in the beginning; The Summer how it ripened in the eare; And Autumn, what our golden harvests were. The Winter I'll not think on to spite thee, But count it a lost season, so shall shee. And dearest Friend, since we must part, drown night With hope of Day, burthens well born are light. Though cold and darkness longer hang somewhere, Yet Phoebus equally lights all the Sphere. And what he cannot in like Portions pay, The world enjoyes in Mass, and so we may. Be then ever your self, and let no woe Win on your health, your youth, your beauty: so Declare your self base fortunes Enemy, No less by your contempt then constancy: That I may grow enamoured on your mind, When my own thoughts I there reflected find. For this to th'comfort of my Dear I vow, My Deeds shall still be what my words are now; The Poles shall move to teach me ere I start; And when I change my Love, I'll change my heart; Nay, if I wax but cold in my desire, Think, heaven hath motion lost, and the world, fire: Much more I could, but many words have made That, oft, suspected which men would perswade; Take therefore all in this: I love so true, As I will never look for less in you. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE THREE CHILDREN by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN STUDY #2 FOR B.B.L. by JUNE JORDAN WATCHING THE NEEDLEBOATS AT SAN SABBA by JAMES JOYCE SESTINA: TRAVEL NOTES by WELDON KEES A HYMN TO CHRIST, AT THE AUTHOR'S LAST GOING INTO GERMANY by JOHN DONNE |
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