Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
John Donne. 15731631198. The Ecstasy
WHERE, like a pillow on a bed, | |
A pregnant bank swell’d up, to rest | |
The violet’s reclining head, | |
Sat we two, one another’s best. | |
Our hands were firmly cèmented | 5 |
By a fast balm which thence did spring; | |
Our eye-beams twisted, and did thread | |
Our eyes upon one double string. | |
So to engraft our hands, as yet | |
Was all the means to make us one; | 10 |
And pictures in our eyes to get | |
Was all our propagation. | |
As ‘twixt two equal armies Fate | |
Suspends uncertain victory, | |
Our souls—which to advance their state | 15 |
Were gone out—hung ‘twixt her and me. | |
And whilst our souls negotiate there, | |
We like sepulchral statues lay; | |
All day the same our postures were, | |
And we said nothing, all the day. | 20 |