John Donne (1572–1631). The Poems of John Donne. 1896.
Letters to Several PersonagesTo Mr. Rowland Woodward
L
Herself a nun, tied to retiredness,
So affects my Muse, now, a chaste fallowness.
How love-song weeds and satiric thorns are grown,
Where seeds of better arts were early sown;
Betroth’d to no one art, be no adultery;
Omissions of good, ill, as ill deeds be.
Yet in those faithful scales, where God throws in
Men’s works, vanity weighs as much as sin.
May clothe them with faith, and dear honesty,
Which God imputes as native purity.
Wise, valiant, sober, just, are names which none
Want, which want not vice-covering discretion.
Men force the sun with much more force to pass,
By gathering his beams with a crystal glass,
Blowing our spark of virtue—may out-burn
The straw which doth about our hearts sojourn.
Into any oil the souls of simples, use
Places, where they may lie still warm, to choose.
Giddily and be everywhere, but at home,
Such freedom doth a banishment become.
If we can stock ourselves, and thrive, uplay
Much, much dear treasure for the great rent day.
And with vain outward things be no more moved,
But to know that I love thee and would be loved.