Who thought that this device might be some way
To make their souls, at the last busy day,

Meet at this grave, and make a little stay?

If this fall in a time or land

Where mass-devotion doth command,
Then he that digs us up will bring
Us to the bishop or the king,***
To make us Reliques; then

Thou shalt be a Mary Magdalen, and I
A something else thereby:

All women shall adore us, and some men:
And since at such time miracles are sought,
I would have that age, by this paper, taught
What miracles we harmless lovers wrought.

First we lov'd well and faithfully,
Yet knew not what we lov'd, nor why;
Diff'rence of sex we ne'er knew

No more than guardian angels do;

Coming and going we

Perchance might kiss, but yet between those meals

Our hands ne'er touch'd the seals

Which Nature, injur'd by late law, set free:
These miracles we did; but now, alas!
All measure and all language I should pass,
Should I tell what a miracle she was.

Donne

Fij

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THE DAMP.

WHEN I am dead, and doctors know not why,

And my friends' curiosity

Will have me çut up, to survey each part,

And they shall find your picture in mine heart;
You think a sudden damp of love

Will thro' all their senses move,

And work on them as me, and so prefer
Your murder to the name of massacre.

Poor victories! but if you dare be brave,
And pleasure in the conquest have,

A

First kill th' enormous giant, your disdain,..
And let th' enchantress Honour next be slain;
And, like a Goth or Vandal, rise,.

Deface records and histories

Of your own acts and triumphs over men,
And without such advantage kill me then.

For I could muster up, as well as you,
My giants and my witches too,

Which are vast Constancy and Secretness;
But these I neither look for nor profess.

Kill me as woman; let me die

As a mere man: do you but try

Your passive valour, and you shall find then,
Naked you've odds enough of any man.

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THE DISSOLUTION.

SHE's dead! and all which die

To their first elements resolve;
And we were mutual elements to us,
And made of one another.

My body then doth her's involve,

And those things, whereaf I consist, hereby
In me abundant grow and burdenous
And nourish not, but smother.

My fire of passion, sighs of air,

Water of tears, and earthly sad despair,
Which my materials be,

(But near worn out by Love's security)
She, to my loss, doth by her death repair;
And I might live long wretched so,

But that my fire doth with my fuel grow.

Now as those active kings,

Whose foreign conquest treasure brings,

Receive more, and spend more, and soonest break;

This, (which I am amaz'd that I can speak)

This death hath, with my store,

My use increas'd:

And so my soul, more earnestly releas'd,

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Will outstrip her's; as bullets flown before

A later bullet may o'ertake, the powder being more.

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THOU

A JET RING SENT.

HOU art not so black as my heart,

Nor half so brittle as her heart thou art. [thee be spoke? What wouldst thou say? shall both our properties by Nothing more endless, nothing sooner broke.

Marriage-rings are not of this stuff';

Oh! why should ought less precious, or less tough, Figure our loves? except in thy naine thou have bid it I'm cheap, and nought but fashion; fling me away. [say

Yet stay with me, since thou art come;

Circle this finger's top, which didst her thumb:

Be justly proud, and gladly safe, that thou dost dwell

with me;

She that, oh! broke her faith would soon break thee.

NEGATIVE LOVE.

I NEVER Stoop'd so low as they

Which on an eye, cheek, lip, can prey,
Seldom to them which soar no higher
Than virtue or the mind t' admire;
For sense and understanding may
Know what gives fuel to their fire;
My love, tho' silly, is more brave,
For may I miss whene'er I crave,
If I know yet what I would have.

If that be simply perfectest

Which can by no means be exprest

But negatives, my love is so;

To all which all love I say No.

If any who deciphers best,

What we know not (ourselves) can know,

Let him teach me that nothing: this

As yet my ease and comfort is,

Tho' I speed not I cannot miss.

THE PROHIBITION,

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 stile 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.

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