[ { "title": "Holy Sonnet IV: Oh My Black Soul! Now Art Thou Summoned", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "Oh my black soul! now art thou summoned", "By sickness, death's herald, and champion;", "Thou art like a pilgrim, which abroad hath done", "Treason, and durst not turn to whence he is fled;", "Or like a thief, which till death's doom be read,", "Wisheth himself delivered from prison,", "But damned and haled to execution,", "Wisheth that still he might be imprisoned.", "Yet grace, if thou repent, thou canst not lack;", "But who shall give thee that grace to begin?", "Oh make thy self with holy mourning black,", "And red with blushing, as thou art with sin;", "Or wash thee in Christ's blood, which hath this might", "That being red, it dyes red souls to white" ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Holy Sonnet XVI: Father, Part Of His Double Interest", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "Father, part of his double interest", "Unto thy kingdom, thy Son gives to me,", "His jointure in the knotty Trinity", "He keeps, and gives to me his death's conquest.", "This Lamb, whose death with life the world hath blest,", "Was from the world's beginning slain, and he", "Hath made two Wills which with the Legacy", "Of his and thy kingdom do thy Sons invest.", "Yet such are thy laws that men argue yet", "Whether a man those statutes can fulfil;", "None doth; but all-healing grace and spirit", "Revive again what law and letter kill.", "Thy law's abridgement, and thy last command", "Is all but love; Oh let this last Will stand!" ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Elegy IX: The Autumnal", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "No spring nor summer Beauty hath such grace", "As I have seen in one autumnall face.", "Young beauties force our love, and that's a rape,", "This doth but counsel, yet you cannot 'scape.", "If 'twere a shame to love, here 'twere no shame,", "Affection here takes Reverence's name.", "Were her first years the Golden Age; that's true,", "But now she's gold oft tried, and ever new.", "That was her torrid and inflaming time,", "This is her tolerable Tropique clime.", "Fair eyes, who asks more heat than comes from hence,", "He in a fever wishes pestilence.", "Call not these wrinkles, graves; if graves they were,", "They were Love's graves; for else he is no where.", "Yet lies not Love dead here, but here doth sit", "Vowed to this trench, like an Anachorit.", "", "And here, till hers, which must be his death, come,", "He doth not dig a grave, but build a tomb.", "Here dwells he, though he sojourn ev'ry where,", "In progress, yet his standing house is here.", "Here, where still evening is; not noon, nor night;", "Where no voluptuousness, yet all delight", "In all her words, unto all hearers fit,", "You may at revels, you at counsel, sit.", "This is Love's timber, youth his under-wood;", "There he, as wine in June enrages blood,", "Which then comes seasonabliest, when our taste", "And appetite to other things is past.", "Xerxes' strange Lydian love, the Platane tree,", "Was loved for age, none being so large as she,", "Or else because, being young, nature did bless", "Her youth with age's glory, Barrenness.", "If we love things long sought, Age is a thing", "Which we are fifty years in compassing;", "If transitory things, which soon decay,", "Age must be loveliest at the latest day.", "But name not winter-faces, whose skin's slack;", "Lank, as an unthrift's purse; but a soul's sack;", "Whose eyes seek light within, for all here's shade;", "Whose mouths are holes, rather worn out than made;", "Whose every tooth to a several place is gone,", "To vex their souls at Resurrection;", "Name not these living deaths-heads unto me,", "For these, not ancient, but antique be.", "I hate extremes; yet I had rather stay", "With tombs than cradles, to wear out a day.", "Since such love's natural lation is, may still", "My love descend, and journey down the hill,", "Not panting after growing beauties so,", "I shall ebb out with them, who homeward go." ], "linecount": "50" }, { "title": "Holy Sonnet XIX: Oh, To Vex Me, Contraries Meet In One", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "Oh, to vex me, contraries meet in one:", "Inconstancy unnaturally hath begot", "A constant habit; that when I would not", "I change in vows, and in devotion.", "As humorous is my contrition", "As my profane love, and as soon forgot:", "As riddlingly distempered, cold and hot,", "As praying, as mute; as infinite, as none.", "I durst not view heaven yesterday; and today", "In prayers and flattering speeches I court God:", "Tomorrow I quake with true fear of his rod.", "So my devout fits come and go away", "Like a fantastic ague; save that here", "Those are my best days, when I shake with feare." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "The Dream", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "Dear love, for nothing less than thee", "Would I have broke this happy dream;", "It was a theme", "For reason, much too strong for phantasy:", "Therefore thou waked'st me wisely; yet", "My dream thou brok'st not, but continued'st it.", "Thou art so truth that thoughts of thee suffice", "To make dreams truths, and fables histories.", "Enter these arms, for since thou thought'st it best", "Not to dream all my dream, let's act the rest.", "As lightning or a taper's light,", "Thine eyes, and not thy noise, waked me;", "Yet I thought thee", "(For thou lov'st truth) an angel at first sight;", "But when I saw thou saw'st my heart,", "And knew'st my thoughts, beyond an angels art,", "When thou knew'st what I dreamt, when thou knew'st when", "Excess of joy would wake me, and cam'st then,", "I must confess it could not choose but be", "Prophane to think thee anything but thee.", "", "Comming and staying showed thee thee,", "But rising makes me doubt, that now", "Thou art not thou.", "That Love is weak, where fear's as strong as he;", "'Tis not all spirit pure and brave", "If mixture it of Fear, Shame, Honour, have.", "Perchance as torches, which must ready be,", "Men light and put out, so thou deal'st with me,", "Thou cam'st to kindle, go'st to come; Then I", "Will dream that hope again, but else would die." ], "linecount": "30" }, { "title": "Celestial Music", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "I have a friend who still believes in heaven.", "Not a stupid person, yet with all she knows, she literally talks to God.", "She thinks someone listens in heaven.", "On earth she's unusually competent.", "Brave too, able to face unpleasantness.", "", "We found a caterpillar dying in the dirt, greedy ants crawling over it.", "I'm always moved by disaster, always eager to oppose vitality", "But timid also, quick to shut my eyes.", "Whereas my friend was able to watch, to let events play out", "According to nature. For my sake she intervened", "Brushing a few ants off the torn thing, and set it down", "Across the road.", "", "My friend says I shut my eyes to God, that nothing else explains", "My aversion to reality. She says I'm like the child who", "Buries her head in the pillow", "So as not to see, the child who tells herself", "That light causes sadness-", "My friend is like the mother. Patient, urging me", "To wake up an adult like herself, a courageous person-", "", "In my dreams, my friend reproaches me. We're walking", "On the same road, except it's winter now;", "She's telling me that when you love the world you hear celestial music:", "Look up, she says. When I look up, nothing.", "Only clouds, snow, a white business in the trees", "Like brides leaping to a great height-", "Then I'm afraid for her; I see her", "Caught in a net deliberately cast over the earth-", "", "In reality, we sit by the side of the road, watching the sun set;", "From time to time, the silence pierced by a birdcall.", "It's this moment we're trying to explain, the fact", "That we're at ease with death, with solitude.", "My friend draws a circle in the dirt; inside, the caterpillar doesn't move.", "She's always trying to make something whole, something beautiful, an image", "Capable of life apart from her.", "We're very quiet. It's peaceful sitting here, not speaking, The composition", "Fixed, the road turning suddenly dark, the air", "Going cool, here and there the rocks shining and glittering-", "It's this stillness we both love.", "The love of form is a love of endings." ], "linecount": "39" }, { "title": "Holy Sonnet XII: Why Are We By All Creatures Waited On?", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "Why are we by all creatures waited on?", "Why do the prodigal elements supply", "Life and food to me, being more pure than I,", "Simple, and further from corruption?", "Why brook'st thou, ignorant horse, subjection?", "Why dost thou, bull, and bore so seelily,", "Dissemble weakness, and by one man's stroke die,", "Whose whole kind you might swallow and feed upon?", "Weaker I am, woe is me, and worse than you,", "You have not sinned, nor need be timorous.", "But wonder at a greater wonder, for to us", "Created nature doth these things subdue,", "But their Creator, whom sin nor nature tied,", "For us, His creatures, and His foes, hath died." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Woman's Constancy", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "Now thou hast loved me one whole day,", "Tomorrow when thou leav'st, what wilt thou say?", "Wilt thou then antedate some new made vow?", " Or say that now", "We are not just those persons, which we were?", "Or, that oaths made in reverential fear", "Of Love, and his wrath, any may forswear?", "Or, as true deaths, true marriages untie,", "So lovers' contracts, images of those,", "Bind but till sleep, death's image, them unloose?", " Or, your own end to justify,", "For having purposed change, and falsehood, you", "Can have no way but falsehood to be true?", "Vain lunatic, against these 'scapes I could", " Dispute, and conquer, if I would,", " Which I abstain to do,", "For by tomorrow, I may think so too." ], "linecount": "17" }, { "title": "Holy Sonnet V: I Am A Little World Made Cunningly", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "I am a little world made cunningly", "Of elements, and an angelic sprite;", "But black sin hath betrayed to endless night", "My worlds both parts, and (oh!) both parts must die.", "You which beyond that heaven which was most high", "Have found new spheres, and of new lands can write,", "Pour new seas in mine eyes, that so I might", "Drown my world with my weeping earnestly,", "Or wash it if it must be drowned no more:", "But oh it must be burnt! alas the fire", "Of lust and envy have burnt it heretofore,", "And made it fouler: Let their flames retire,", "And burn me, O Lord, with a fiery zeal", "Of Thee and Thy house, which doth in eating heal." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Holy Sonnet I: Tho Has Made Me", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "Tho has made me, and shall thy work decay?", "Repair me now, for now mine end doth haste;", "I run to death, and death meets me as fast,", "And all my pleasures are like yesterday.", "I dare not move my dim eyes any way,", "Despair behind, and death before doth cast", "Such terror, and my feeble flesh doth waste", "By sin in it, which it towards hell doth weigh.", "Only thou art above, and when towards thee", "By thy leave I can look, I rise again;", "But our old subtle foe so tempteth me", "That not one hour myself I can sustain.", "Thy grace may wing me to prevent his art,", "And thou like adamant draw mine iron heart." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Holy Sonnet X: Death Be Not Proud", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "Death, be not proud, though some have callèd thee", "Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;", "For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow", "Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.", "From rest and sleep, which yet thy pictures be,", "Much pleasure, then from thee much more, must low", "And soonest our best men with thee do go,", "Rest of their bones and soul's delivery.", "Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate men", "And dost with poison, war and sickness dwell,", "And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well", "And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then ?", "One short sleep past, we wake eternally,", "And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Holy Sonnet VIII: If Faithful Souls Be Alike Glorified", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "If faithful souls be alike glorified", "As angels, then my fathers soul doth see,", "And adds this even to full felicity,", "That valiantly I hells wide mouth o'erstride:", "But if our minds to these souls be descried", "By circumstances, and by signs that be", "Apparent in us, not immediately,", "How shall my mind's white truth by them be tried?", "They see idolatrous lovers weep and mourn,", "And vile blasphemous conjurers to call", "On Jesus name, and Pharisaical", "Dissemblers feigne devotion. Then turn,", "O pensive soul, to God, for he knows best", "Thy true grief, for he put it in my breast." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Holy Sonnet II: As Due By Many Titles I Resign", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "As due by many titles I resign", "My self to Thee, O God; first I was made", "By Thee, and for Thee, and when I was decayed", "Thy blood bought that, the which before was Thine;", "I am Thy son, made with Thy Self to shine,", "Thy servant, whose pains Thou hast still repaid,", "Thy sheep, thine image, and, till I betrayed", "My self, a temple of Thy Spirit divine;", "Why doth the devil then usurp on me?", "Why doth he steal, nay ravish that's thy right?", "Except thou rise and for thine own work fight,", "Oh I shall soon despair, when I do see", "That thou lov'st mankind well, yet wilt not choose me,", "And Satan hates me, yet is loth to lose me." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Holy Sonnet VII: At The Round Earth's Imagined Corners Blow", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "At the round earth's imagined corners blow", "Your trumpets, angels, and arise, arise", "From death, you numberless infinities", "Of souls, and to your scattered bodies go,", "All whom the flood did, and fire shall, overthrow,", "All whom war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies,", "Despair, law, chance, hath slain, and you whose eyes", "Shall behold God, and never taste death's woe.", "But let them sleep, Lord, and me mourn a space,", "For, if above all these my sins abound,", "'Tis late to ask abundance of Thy grace,", "When we are there. Here on this lowly ground", "Teach me how to repent; for that's as good", "As if Thou'dst sealed my pardon, with Thy blood." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Holy Sonnet XV: Wilt Thou Love God, As He Thee? Then Digest", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "Wilt thou love God, as he thee? Then digest,", "My soul, this wholesome meditation,", "How God the Spirit, by angels waited on", "In heaven, doth make his Temple in thy breast.", "The Father having begot a Son most blest,", "And still begetting, (for he ne'er be gone)", "Hath deigned to choose thee by adoption,", "Co-heir t' his glory, and Sabbath' endless rest.", "And as a robbed man, which by search doth find", "His stol'n stuff sold, must lose or buy 't again:", "The Son of glory came down, and was slain,", "Us whom he'd made, and Satan stol'n, to unbind.", "'Twas much that man was made like God before,", "But, that God should be made like man, much more." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Holy Sonnet IX: If Poisonous Minerals, And If That Tree", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "If poisonous minerals, and if that tree", "Whose fruit threw death on else immortal us,", "If lecherous goats, if serpents envious", "Cannot be damned, alas, why should I be?", "Why should intent or reason, born in me,", "Make sins, else equal, in me more heinous?", "And Mercy being easy, and glorious", "To God; in his stern wrath, why threatens he?", "But who am I, that dare dispute with thee", "O God? Oh! of thine only worthy blood,", "And my tears, make a heavenly Lethean flood,", "And drown in it my sin's black memory;", "That thou remember them, some claim as debt,", "I think it mercy, if thou wilt forget." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Holy Sonnet XVIII: Show me, dear Christ, thy Spouse, so bright and clear", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "Show me, dear Christ, thy Spouse, so bright and clear.", "What! is it She, which on the other shore", "Goes richly painted? or which, robbed and tore,", "Laments and mourns in Germany and here?", "Sleeps she a thousand, then peeps up one year?", "Is she self-truth and errs? now new, now outwore?", "Doth she, and did she, and shall she evermore", "On one, on seven, or on no hill appear?", "Dwells she with us, or like adventuring knights", "First travail we to seek and then make love?", "Betray, kind husband, thy spouse to our sights,", "And let mine amorous soul court thy mild dove,", "Who is most true and pleasing to thee then", "When she's embraced and open to most men." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Holy Sonnet VI: This Is My Play's Last Scene, Here Heavens Appoint", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "This is my play's last scene, here heavens appoint", "My pilgrimage's last mile; and my race", "Idly, yet quickly run, hath this last pace,", "My span's last inch, my minute's latest point,", "And gluttonous death, will instantly unjoint", "My body and soul, and I shall sleep a space;", "But my ever-waking part shall see that face,", "Whose fear already shakes my every joint:", "Then, as my soul, t' heaven her first seat, takes flight,", "And earth-born body in the earth shall dwell,", "So fall my sins that all may have their right", "(To where they're bred, and would press me) to hell.", "Impute me righteous, thus purged of evil,", "For thus I leave the world, the flesh, the devil." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "The Prohibition", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "Take heed of loving me;", "At least remember I forbade it thee;", "Not that I shall repair my unthrifty waste", "Of breath and blood, upon thy sighs and tears,", "By being to thee then what to me thou wast;", "But so great joy our life at once outwears;", "Then, lest thy love by my death frustrate be,", "If thou love me, take heed of loving me.", "", "Take heed of hating me,", "Or too much triumph in the victory;", "Not that I shall be mine own officer,", "And hate with hate again retaliate;", "But thou wilt lose the style of conqueror", "If I, thy conquest, perish by thy hate;", "Then, lest my being nothing lessen thee,", "If thou hate me, take heed of hating me.", "", "Yet, love and hate me too;", "So, these extremes shall neither's office do;", "Love me, that I may die the gentler way;", "Hate me, because thy love is too great for me;", "Or let these two themselves, not me, decay;", "So shall I live thy stage, not triumph be;", "Lest thou thy love and hate and me undo,", "To let me live, O love and hate me too." ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "Holy Sonnet III: O Might Those Sighs And Tears Return Again", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "O might those sighs and tears return again", "Into my breast and eyes, which I have spent,", "That I might in this holy discontent", "Mourn with some fruit, as I have mourned in vain;", "In mine Idolatry what showers of rain", "Mine eyes did waste! what griefs my heart did rent!", "That sufferance was my sin; now I repent;", "'Cause I did suffer I must suffer pain.", "Th' hydropic drunkard, and night-scouting thief,", "The itchy lecher, and self-tickling proud", "Have the remembrance of past joys for relief", "Of comming ills. To (poor) me is allowed", "No ease; for long, yet vehement grief hath been", "Th' effect and cause, the punishment and sin." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "A Hymn To God The Father", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun,", "Which is my sin, though it were done before?", "Wilt thou forgive that sin through which I run,", "And do run still, though still I do deplore?", "When thou hast done, thou hast not done,", "For I have more.", "", "Wilt thou forgive that sin by which I have won", "Others to sin? and made my sin their door?", "Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun", "A year or two, but wallowed in a score?", "When thou hast done, thou hast not done,", "For I have more.", "", "I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun", "My last thread, I shall perish on the shore;", "Swear by thyself, that at my death thy Son", "Shall shine as he shines now and heretofore;", "And, having done that, thou hast done,", "I fear no more." ], "linecount": "18" }, { "title": "Air And Angels", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "Twice or thrice had I loved thee,", "Before I knew thy face or name,", "So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame,", "Angels affect us oft, and worship'd be;", "Still when, to where thou wert, I came,", "Some lovely glorious nothing I did see.", "But since my soul, whose child love is,", "Takes limbs of flesh, and else could nothing do,", "More subtile than the parent is,", "Love must not be, but take a body too,", "And therefore what thou wert, and who,", "I bid Love ask, and now", "That it assume thy body, I allow,", "And fix itself in thy lip, eye, and brow.", "", "Whilst thus to ballast love, I thought,", "And so more steadily to have gone,", "With wares which would sink admiration,", "I saw, I had love's pinnace overfraught,", "Ev'ry thy hair for love to work upon", "Is much too much, some fitter must be sought;", "For, nor in nothing, nor in things", "Extreme, and scatt'ring bright, can love inhere;", "Then as an Angel, face, and wings", "Of air, not pure as it, yet pure doth wear,", "So thy love may be my loves sphere;", "Just such disparity", "As is twixt Air and Angels' purity,", "'Twixt women's love, and men's will ever be." ], "linecount": "28" }, { "title": "Holy Sonnet XVII: Since She Whom I Loved", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "Since she whom I loved hath paid her last debt", "To Nature, and to hers, and my good is dead,", "And her soul early into heaven ravished,", "Wholly on heavenly things my mind is set.", "here the admiring her my mind did whet", "To seek thee, God; so streams do show the head;", "But though I have found thee, and thou my thirst hast fed,", "a holy thristy dropsy melts me yet.", "But why should I beg more love, whenas thou", "Dost woo my soul, for hers offering all thine:", "And dost not only fear lest I allow", "My love to saints and angels, things divine,", "but in they tender jealousy dost doubt", "lest the world, flesh, yea, devil put thee out." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "The Primrose", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "Upon this Primrose hill,", "Where, if Heav'n would distil", "A shower of rain, each several drop might go", "To his own primrose, and grow manna so;", "And where their form and their infinity", "Make a terrestrial Galaxy,", "As the small stars do in the sky:", "I walk to find a true Love; and I see", "That 'tis not a mere woman that is she,", "But must or more or less than woman be.", "", "Yet know I not which flower", "I wish; a six, or four;", "For should my true-Love less than woman be", "She were scarce any thing; and then, should she", "Be more than woman she would get above", "All thought of sex, and think to move", "My heart to study her, and not to love;", "Both these were monsters; since there must reside", "Falsehood in woman, I could more abide", "She were by art than Nature falsified.", "", "Live primrose then, and thrive", "With thy true number five;", "And woman, whom this flower doth represent,", "With this mysterious number be content;", "Ten is the farthest number; if half ten", "Belong unto each woman, then", "Each woman may take half us men;", "Or if this will not serve their turn, since all", "Numbers are odd or even, and they fall", "First into this, five, woman may take us all." ], "linecount": "30" }, { "title": "Holy Sonnet XI: Spit In My Face You Jews, And Pierce My Side", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "Spit in my face you Jews, and pierce my side,", "Buffet, and scoff, scourge, and crucify me,", "For I have sinned, and sinned, and only he", "Who could do no iniquity hath died:", "But by my death can not be satisfied", "My sins, which pass the Jews' impiety:", "They killed once an inglorious man, but I", "Crucify him daily, being now glorified.", "Oh let me, then, his strange love still admire:", "Kings pardon, but he bore our punishment.", "And Jacob came clothed in vile harsh attire", "But to supplant, and with gainful intent:", "God clothed himself in vile man's flesh, that so", "He might be weak enough to suffer woe." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Song (Go And Catch A Falling Star)", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "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,", "Teach me to hear mermaids singing,", "Or to keep off envy's stinging,", "And find", "What wind", "Serves to advance an honest mind.", "", "If thou be'st born to strange sights,", "Things invisible to see,", "Ride ten thousand days and nights,", "Till age snow white hairs on thee;", "Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me", "All strange wonders that befell thee,", "And swear", "No where", "Lives a woman true, and fair.", "", "If thou find'st one, let me know,", "Such a pilgrimage were sweet;", "Yet do not, I would not go,", "Though at next door we might meet:", "Though she were true, when you met her,", "And last, till you write your letter,", "Yet she", "Will be", "False, ere I come, to two or three." ], "linecount": "27" }, { "title": "The Funeral", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "Whoever comes to shroud me, do not harm", "Nor question much", "That subtle wreath of hair which crowns my arm;", "The mystery, the sign, you must not touch,", "For 'tis my outward Soul,", "Viceroy to that which then to heaven being gone", "Will leave this to control", "And keep these limbs, her Provinces, from dissolution.", "", "For if the sinewy thread my brain lets fall", "Through every part", "Can tie those parts, and make me one of all,", "These hairs, which upward grew, and strength and art", "Have from a better brain,", "Can better do't; except she meant that I", "By this should know my pain,", "As prisoners then are manacled when they're condemned to die.", "", "Whate'er she meant by 't, bury it with me,", "For since I am", "Love's martyr, it might breed idolatry", "If into others' hands these relics came;", "As 'twas humility", "To afford to it all that a Soul can do,", "So 'tis some bravery", "That since you would save none of me, I bury some of you." ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "Holy Sonnet XIII: What If This Present Were The World's Last Night?", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "What if this present were the world's last night?", "Mark in my heart, O soul, where thou dost dwell,", "The picture of Christ crucified, and tell", "Whether that countenance can thee affright,", "Tears in his eyes quench the amazing light,", "Blood fills his frowns, which from his pierced head fell.", "And can that tongue adjudge thee unto hell,", "Which prayed forgiveness for his foes' fierce spite?", "No, no; but as in my idolatry", "I said to all my profane mistresses,", "Beauty, of pity, foulness only is", "A sign of rigour: so I say to thee,", "To wicked spirits are horrid shapes assigned,", "This beauteous form assures a piteous mind." ], "linecount": "14" } ]