[ { "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 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": "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 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 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": "Sonnet IV: Bright Star of Beauty", "author": "Michael Drayton", "lines": [ "Bright star of beauty, on whose eyelids sit", "A thousand nymph-like and enamour'd Graces,", "The Goddesses of Memory and Wit,", "Which there in order take their several places;", "In whose dear bosom sweet delicious Love", "Lays down his quiver, which he once did bear,", "Since he that blessed Paradise did prove,", "And leaves his mother's lap to sport him there.", "Let others strive to entertain with words;", "My soul is of a braver metal made;", "I hold that vile which vulgar wit affords;", "In me's that faith which Time cannot invade.", "Let what I praise be still made good by you;", "Be you most worthy, whilst I am most true." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Sonnet I: Like an Advent'rous Seafarer", "author": "Michael Drayton", "lines": [ "Like an advent'rous seafarer am I,", "Who hath some long and dang'rous voyage been,", "And, call'd to tell of his discovery,", "How far he sail'd, what countries he had seen;", "Proceeding from the port whence he put forth,", "Shows by his compass how his course he steer'd,", "When East, when West, when South, and when by North,", "As how the Pole to every place was rear'd,", "What capes he doubled, of what Continent,", "The gulfs and straits that strangely he had past,", "Where most becalm'd, where with foul weather spent,", "And on what rocks in peril to be cast:", "Thus in my love, Time calls me to relate", "My tedious travels and oft-varying fate." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Sonnet IX: As Other Men", "author": "Michael Drayton", "lines": [ "As other men, so I myself do muse", "Why in this sort I wrest invention so,", "And why these giddy metaphors I use,", "Leaving the path the greater part do go.", "I will resolve you: I am lunatic,", "And ever this in madmen you shall find,", "What they last thought of when the brain grew sick", "In most distraction they keep that in mind.", "Thus talking idly in this bedlam fit,", "Reason and I, you must conceive, are twain;", "\"Tis nine years now since first I lost my wit;", "Bear with me then, though troubled be my brain.", "With diet and correction men distraught", "(Not too far past) may to their wits be brought." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Sonnet I", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "NOR judge me light, tho' light at times I seem,", "And lightly in the stress of fortune bear", "The innumerable flaws of changeful care -", "Nor judge me light for this, nor rashly deem", "(Office forbid to mortals, kept supreme", "And separate the prerogative of God!)", "That seaman idle who is borne abroad", "To the far haven by the favouring stream.", "Not he alone that to contrarious seas", "Opposes, all night long, the unwearied oar,", "Not he alone, by high success endeared,", "Shall reach the Port; but, winged, with some light breeze", "Shall they, with upright keels, pass in before", "Whom easy Taste, the golden pilot, steered." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Sonnet III: With how sad steps", "author": "Sir Philip Sidney", "lines": [ "With how sad steps, O moon, thou climb'st the skies!", "How silently, and with how wan a face!", "What! may it be that even in heavenly place", "That busy archer his sharp arrows tries?", "Sure, if that long-with-love-acquainted eyes", "Can judge of love, thou feel'st a lover's case:", "I read it in thy looks; thy languished grace", "To me, that feel the like, thy state descries.", "Then, even of fellowship, O Moon, tell me,", "Is constant love deemed there but want of wit?", "Are beauties there as proud as here they be?", "Do they above love to be loved, and yet", "Those lovers scorn whoom that love doth possess?", "Do they call 'virtue' there - ungratefulness?" ], "linecount": "14" } ]