Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
John Donne (1572–1631). The Poems of John Donne. 1896.
Divine Poems
The Lamentations of Jeremy
For the Most Part According to Tremellius
CHAP. I.
1. H
OW sits this city, late most populous,
Thus solitary, and like a widow thus? | Amplest of nations, queen of provinces | She was, who now thus tributary is? 2. | Still in the night she weeps, and her tears fall | Down by her cheeks along, and none of all | Her lovers comfort her; perfidiously | Her friends have dealt, and now are enemy. 3. | Unto great bondage, and afflictions, | Judah is captive led; those nations | With whom she dwells, no place of rest afford; | In straits she meets her persecutors’ sword. 4. | Empty are the gates of Sion, and her ways | Mourn, because none come to her solemn days. | Her priests do groan, her maids are comfortless; | And she’s unto herself a bitterness. 5. | Her foes are grown her head, and live at peace, | Because, when her transgressions did increase, | The Lord strook her with sadness; the enemy | Doth drive her children to captivity. 6. | From Sion’s daughter is all beauty gone; | Like harts which seek for pasture, and find none, | Her princes are; and now before the foe | Which still pursues them, without strength they go. 7. | Now in their days of tears, Jerusalem | —Her men slain by the foe, none succouring them— | Remembers what of old she esteemed most, | Whiles her foes laugh at her, for what she hath lost. 8. | Jerusalem hath sinn’d, therefore is she | Removed, as women in uncleanness be; | Who honour’d, scorn her, for her foulness they | Have seen; herself doth groan, and turn away. 9. | Her foulness in her skirts was seen, yet she | Remember’d not her end; miraculously | Therefore she fell, none comforting; behold, | O Lord, my affliction, for the foe grows bold. 10. | Upon all things where her delight hath been, | The foe hath stretch’d his hand, for she hath seen | Heathen, whom thou command’st should not do so, | Into her holy sanctuary go. 11. | And all her people groan, and seek for bread; | And they have given, only to be fed, | All precious things, wherein their pleasure lay; | How cheap I’m grown, O Lord, behold, and weigh. 12. | All this concerns not you, who pass by me; | O see, and mark if any sorrow be | Like to my sorrow, which Jehovah hath | Done to me in the day of His fierce wrath? 13. | That fire, which by Himself is governed, | He hath cast from heaven on my bones, and spread | A net before my feet, and me o’erthrown, | And made me languish all the day alone. 14. | His hand hath of my sins framèd a yoke | Which wreathed, and cast upon my neck, hath broke | My strength; the Lord unto those enemies | Hath given me, from whom I cannot rise. 15. | He under foot hath trodden in my sight | My strong men; He did company accite | To break my young men; He the winepress hath | Trod upon Judah’s daughter in His wrath. 16. | For these things do I weep; mine eye, mine eye | Casts water out; for He which should be nigh | To comfort me, is now departed far; | The foe prevails, forlorn my children are. 17. | There’s none, though Sion do stretch out her hand, | To comfort her; it is the Lord’s command | That Jacob’s foes girt him; Jerusalem | Is as an unclean woman amongst them. 18. | But yet the Lord is just, and righteous still; | I have rebell’d against His holy will; | O hear all people, and my sorrow see, | My maids, my young men in captivity. 19. | I called for my lovers then, but they | Deceived me, and my priests, and elders lay | Dead in the city; for they sought for meat | Which should refresh their souls, and none could get. 20. | Because I am in straits, Jehovah, see! | My heart o’erturn’d, my bowels muddy be; | Because I have rebell’d so much, as fast | The sword without, as death within, doth waste. 21. | Of all which here I mourn, none comforts me; | My foes have heard my grief, and glad they be, | That Thou hast done it; but Thy promised day | Will come, when, as I suffer, so shall they. 22. | Let all their wickedness appear to Thee; | Do unto them, as Thou hast done to me, | For all my sins; the sighs which I have had | Are very many, and my heart is sad. CHAP. II. 1. HOW over Sion’s daughter hath God hung
| His wrath’s thick cloud? and from heaven hath flung | To earth the beauty of Israel, and hath | Forgot His foot-stool in the day of wrath? 2. | The Lord unsparingly hath swallowed | All Jacob’s dwellings, and demolished | To ground the strength of Judah, and profaned | The Princes of the kingdom, and the land. 3. | In heat of wrath the horn of Israel He | Hath clean cut off, and lest the enemy | Be hinder’d, His right hand He doth retire, | But is towards Jacob all-devouring fire. 4. | Like to an enemy He bent His bow; | His right hand was in posture of a foe, | To kill what Sion’s daughter did desire, | ’Gainst whom His wrath He poured forth like fire. 5. | For like an enemy Jehovah is, | Devouring Israel, and his palaces, | Destroying holds, giving additions | To Judah’s daughters’ lamentations. 6. | Like to a garden hedge He hath cast down | The place where was His congregation, | And Sion’s feasts and sabbaths are forgot; | Her King, her Priest, His wrath regardeth not. 7. | The Lord forsakes His altar, and detests | His sanctuary, and in the foes’ hands rests | His palace, and the walls, in which their cries | Are heard, as in the true solemnities. 8. | The Lord hath cast a line, so to confound | And level Sion’s walls unto the ground; | He draws not back His hand, which doth o’erturn | The wall, and rampart, which together mourn. 9. | Their gates are sunk into the ground, and He | Hath broke the bar; their king and princes be | Amongst the heathen, without law, nor there | Unto their prophets doth the Lord appear. 10. | There Sion’s elders on the ground are placed, | And silence keep; dust on their heads they cast; | In sackcloth have they girt themselves, and low | The virgins towards ground their heads do throw. 11. | My bowels are grown muddy, and mine eyes | Are faint with weeping; and my liver lies | Pour’d out upon the ground, for misery | That sucking children in the streets do die. 12. | When they had cried unto their mothers, “Where | Shall we have bread, and drink?” they fainted there, | And in the street like wounded persons lay, | Till ’twixt their mothers’ breasts they went away. 13. | Daughter Jerusalem, O what may be | A witness, or comparison for thee? | Sion, to ease thee, what shall I name like thee? | Thy breach is like the sea; what help can be? 14. | For thee vain foolish things thy prophets sought; | Thee, thine iniquities they have not taught, | Which might disturb thy bondage; but for thee | False burthens, and false causes they would see. 15. | The passengers do clap their hands, and hiss | And wag their head at thee, and say, “Is this | That city, which so many men did call | Joy of the earth, and perfectest of all?” 16. | Thy foes do gape upon thee, and they hiss, | And gnash their teeth, and say, “Devour we this, | For this is certainly the day which we | Expected, and which now we find, and see.” 17. | The Lord hath done that which He purposèd; | Fulfill’d His word of old determined; | He hath thrown down, and not spared, and thy foe | Made glad above thee, and advanced him so. 18. | But now their hearts unto the Lord do call; | Therefore, O walls of Sion, let tears fall | Down like a river, day and night; take thee | No rest, but let thine eye incessant be. 19. | Arise, cry in the night, pour out thy sins, | Thy heart, like water, when the watch begins; | Lift up thy hands to God, lest children die, | Which, faint for hunger, in the streets do lie. 20. | Behold, O Lord, consider unto whom | Thou hast done this; what, shall the women come | To eat their children of a span? shall Thy | Prophet and priest be slain in sanctuary? 21. | On ground in streets the young and old do lie; | My virgins and young men by sword do die; | Them in the day of Thy wrath Thou hast slain; | Nothing did Thee from killing them contain. 22. | As to a solemn feast, all whom I fear’d | Thou call’st about me; when Thy wrath appear’d, | None did remain or scape, for those which I | Brought up, did perish by mine enemy. CHAP. III. 1. I AM the man which have affliction seen,
| Under the rod of God’s wrath having been; 2. | He hath led me to darkness, not to light, 3. | And against me all day, His hand doth fight. 4. | He hath broke my bones, worn out my flesh and skin, 5. | Built up against me; and hath girt me in | With hemlock, and with labour; 6. And set me | In dark, as they who dead for ever be. 7. | He hath hedged me lest I ’scape, and added more | To my steel fetters heavier than before. 8. | When I cry out He outshuts my prayer; 9. And hath | Stopp’d with hewn stone my way, and turn’d my path. 10. | And like a lion hid in secrecy, | Or bear which lies in wait, He was to me. 11. | He stops my way, tears me, made desolate; 12. | And He makes me the mark He shooteth at. 13. | He made the children of His quiver pass | Into my reins. 14. I, with my people, was | All the day long, a song and mockery. 15. | He hath fill’d me with bitterness, and He
| Hath made me drunk with wormwood. 16. He hath burst | My teeth with stones, and cover’d me with dust. 17. | And thus my soul far off from peace was set, | And my prosperity I did forget. 18. | My strength, my hope—unto myself I said— | Which from the Lord should come, is perished; 19. | But when my mournings I do think upon, | My wormwood, hemlock, and affliction, 20. | My soul is humbled in rememb’ring this; 21. | My heart considers, therefore, hope there is. 22. | ’Tis God’s great mercy we’re not utterly | Consumed, for His compassions do not die; 23. | For every morning they renewed be, | For great, O Lord, is Thy fidelity. 24. | The Lord is—saith my soul—my portion, | And therefore in Him will I hope alone. 25. | The Lord is good to them, who on Him rely, | And to the soul that seeks Him earnestly. 26. | It is both good to trust, and to attend | The Lord’s salvation unto the end. 27. | ’Tis good for one His yoke in youth to bear. 28. | He sits alone, and doth all speech forbear, | Because he hath borne it. 29. And his mouth he lays | Deep in the dust, yet then in hope he stays. 30. | He gives his cheeks to whosoever will | Strike him, and so he is reproached still. 31. | For not for ever doth the Lord forsake; 32. | But when He hath struck with sadness, He doth take
| Compassion, as His mercy ’s infinite; 33. | Nor is it with His heart, that He doth smite, 34. | That underfoot the prisoners stamped be, 35. | That a man’s right the judge himself doth see
| To be wrung from him; 36. That he subverted is | In his just cause, the Lord allows not this. 37. | Who then will say, that aught doth come to pass, | But that which by the Lord commanded was? 38. | Both good and evil from His mouth proceeds; 39. | Why then grieves any man for his misdeeds? 40. | Turn we to God, by trying out our ways; 41. | To Him in heav’n our hands with hearts upraise. 42. | We have rebell’d, and fallen away from Thee; | Thou pardon’st not; 43. Usest no clemency; | Pursuest us, kill’st us, cover’st us with wrath; 44. | Cover’st Thyself with clouds, that our prayer hath
| No power to pass. 45. And Thou hast made us fall | As refuse, and off-scouring to them all. 46. | All our foes gape at us. 47. Fear and a snare | With ruin, and with waste upon us are. 48. | With watery rivers doth mine eye o’erflow | For ruin of my people’s daughters so; 49. | Mine eye doth drop down tears incessantly, 50. | Until the Lord look down from heav’n to see. 51. | And for my city daughters’ sake, mine eye | Doth break mine heart. 52. Causeless mine enemy | Like a bird chased me. 53. In a dungeon | They’ve shut my life, and cast me on a stone. 54. | Waters flow’d o’er my head; then thought I, I am | Destroy’d; 55. I called, Lord, upon Thy name | Out of the pit; 56. And Thou my voice didst hear; | O from my sigh and cry, stop not Thine ear. 57. | Then when I call’d upon Thee, Thou drew’st near | Unto me, and said’st unto me, “Do not fear.” 58. | Thou, Lord, my soul’s cause handled hast, and Thou | Rescuest my life. 59. O Lord, do Thou judge now.
| Thou heardst my wrong, 60. Their vengeance, all they’ve wrought; 61. | How they reproach’d, Thou’st heard, and what they thought; 62. | What their lips utter’d, which against me rose, | And what was ever whisper’d by my foes. 63. | I am their song, whether they rise or sit; 64. | Give them rewards, Lord, for their working fit, 65. | Sorrow of heart, Thy curse; 66. And with Thy might | Follow, and from under heaven destroy them quite. CHAP. IV. 1. HOW is the gold become so dim? How is
| Purest and finest gold thus changed to this? | The stones which were stones of the sanctuary, | Scatter’d in corners of each street do lie. 2. | The precious sons of Sion, which should be | Valued at purest gold, how do we see | Low rated now, as earthen pitchers, stand, | Which are the work of a poor potter’s hand? 3. | Even the sea-calfs draw their breasts, and give | Suck to their young; my people’s daughters live, | By reason of the foes’ great cruelness, | As do the owls in the vast wilderness. 4. | And when the sucking child doth strive to draw, | His tongue for thirst cleaves to his upper jaw; | And when for bread the children cry, | There is no man that doth them satisfy. 5. | They which before were delicately fed, | Now in the streets forlorn have perished; | And they which ever were in scarlet clothed, | Sit and embrace the dunghills which they loathed. 6. | The daughters of my people have sinn’d more, | Than did the town of Sodom sin before; | Which being at once destroy’d, there did remain | No hands amongst them to vex them again. 7. | But heretofore, purer her Nazarite | Was than the snow, and milk was not so white; | As carbuncles did their pure bodies shine, | And all their polish’dness was sapphirine. 8. | They’re darker now than blackness; none can know | Them by the face, as through the street they go; | For now their skin doth cleave unto their bone, | And withered, is like to dry wood grown. 9. | Better by sword than famine ’tis to die; | And better through-pierced, than through penury. 10. | Women, by nature pitiful, have eat | Their children—dress’d with their own hand—for meat. 11. | Jehovah here fully accomplish’d hath | His indignation, and pour’d forth His wrath; | Kindled a fire in Sion, which hath power | To eat, and her foundations to devour. 12. | Nor would the kings of th’ earth, nor all which live | In the inhabitable world believe, | That any adversary, any foe, | Into Jerusalem should enter so. 13. | For the priests’ sins, and prophets’, which have shed | Blood in the streets and the just murdered; 14. | Which, when those men whom they made blind did stray | Thorough the streets, defilèd by the way
| With blood, the which impossible it was | Their garment should ’scape touching, as they pass, 15. | Would cry aloud, “Depart, defilèd men, | Depart, depart, and touch not us!” and then
| They fled, and stray’d, and with the Gentiles were; | Yet told their friends, they should not long dwell there. 16. | For this they’re scatter’d by Jehovah’s face, | Who never will regard them more; no grace
| Unto their old men shall the foe afford; | Nor, that they’re priests, redeem them from the sword. 17. | And we as yet, for all these miseries | Desiring our vain help, consume our eyes.
| And such a nation as cannot save, | We in desire and speculation have; 18. | They hunt our steps, that in the streets we fear | To go; our end is now approached near.
| Our days accomplish’d are; this the last day; | Eagles of heav’n are not so swift as they 19. | Which follow us; o’er mountain tops they fly | At us, and for us in the desert lie. 20. | Th’ Anointed Lord, breath of our nostrils, He | Of whom we said, under His shadow we | Shall with more ease under the heathen dwell, | Into the pit which these men digged, fell. 21. | Rejoice, O Edom’s daughter, joyful be | Thou that inhabit’st Uz, for unto thee | This cup shall pass, and thou with drunkenness | Shalt fill thyself, and show thy nakedness. 22. | Then thy sins, O Sion, shall be spent, | The Lord will not leave thee in banishment. | Thy sins, O Edom’s daughter, He will see, | And for them, pay thee with captivity. CHAP. V. 1. REMEMBER, O Lord, what is fall’n on us;
| See, and mark how we are reproached thus; 2. | For unto strangers our possession | Is turn’d, our houses unto aliens gone. 3. | Our mothers are become as widows; we | As orphans all, and without fathers be; 4. | Waters which are our own, we drink and pay; | And upon our own wood a price they lay. 5. | Our persecutors on our necks do sit; | They make us travail, and not intermit; 6. | We stretch our hands unto th’ Egyptians | To get us bread; and to th’ Assyrians. 7. | Our fathers did these sins, and are no more; | But we do bear the sins they did before. 8. | They are but servants, which do rule us thus, | Yet from their hands none would deliver us. 9. | With danger of our life our bread we gat; | For in the wilderness the sword did wait. 10. | The tempests of this famine we lived in, | Black as an oven colour’d had our skin. 11. | In Judah’s cities they the maids abused | By force, and so women in Sion used. 12. | The princes with their hands they hung; no grace | Nor honour gave they to the elder’s face. 13. | Unto the mill our young men carried are, | And children fell under the wood they bare. 14. | Elders the gates, youth did their songs forbear; | Gone was our joy; our dancings, mournings were. 15. | Now is the crown fall’n from our head; and woe | Be unto us, because we’ve sinnèd so. 16. | For this our hearts do languish, and for this | Over our eyes a cloudy dimness is. 17. | Because Mount Sion desolate doth lie, | And foxes there do go at liberty; 18. | But Thou, O Lord, art ever, and Thy throne | From generation to generation. 19. | Why shouldst Thou forget us eternally? | Or leave us thus long in this misery? 20. | Restore us, Lord, to Thee, that so we may | Return, and as of old, renew our day. 21. | For oughtest Thou, O Lord, despise us thus, | And to be utterly enraged at us?
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