John Donne by John Donne

Author:John Donne [Donne, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141392417
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2012-07-14T04:00:00+00:00

Epicedes and Obsequies

Elegy

Sorrow, who to this house scarce knew the way

Is, O, heir of it, our all is his prey.

This strange chance claims strange wonder, and to us

Nothing can be so strange, as to weep thus.

’Tis well his life’s loud speaking works deserve,

And give praise too; our cold tongues could not serve.

’Tis well, he kept tears from our eyes before,

That to fit this deep ill we might have store.

O, if a sweet briar climb up by a tree,

[10] If to a paradise that transplanted be

Or felled and burnt for holy sacrifice,

Yet, that must wither, which by it did rise,

As we, for him dead. Though no family

E’er rigged a soul for heaven’s discovery

With whom more venturers more boldly dare

Venture their states, with him in joy to share.

We lose what all friends loved, him; he gains now

But life by death, which worst foes would allow,

If he could have foes, in whose practice grew

[20] All virtues, whose names subtle schoolmen knew,

What ease can hope, that we shall see’him, beget,

When we must die first, and cannot die yet?

His children are his pictures. O, they be

Pictures of him dead, senseless, cold as he.

Here needs no marble tomb since he is gone;

He, and about him, his, are turned to stone.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.