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Edward Farr, ed. Select Poetry of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. 1845.

Hymne to Christ at the Author’s Last Going into Germany

II. John Donne

IN what torne ship soever I embarke,

That ship shall be my embleme of thy arke;

What sea soever swallow mee, that flood

Shall be to mee an embleme of thy blood;

Though thou with clouds of anger do disguise

Thy face, yet through that maske I know those eyes.

Which though thou turne away sometimes,

They never will despise.

I sacrifice this iland unto thee,

And all whom I loved there, and who loved mee;

When I have put our seas ’twixt them and mee,

Put thou thy seas betwixt my sinnes and thee.

As the tree’s sap doth seeke the root below

In winter, in my winter now I goe

Where none but thee, th’ Eternal root

Of true love, I may know.

Nor thou, nor thy religion dost controule

The amourousnesse of an harmonius soule;

But thou wouldst have that love thyselfe. As thou

Art jealous, Lord, so I am jealous now;

Thou lov’st not till, from loving more, thou free

My soule. Whoever gives, takes libertie:

O, if thou car’st not whom I love,

Alas, thou lov’st not mee.

Seale then this bill of my divorce to all

On whom those fainter beames of love did fall;

Marry those loves, which in youth scattered bee

On Fame, Wit, Hopes, (false mistresses!) to thee.

Churches are best for prayer that have least light:

To see God only I goe out of sight:

And to scape stormy dayes I chuse

An everlasting night.