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 Zion, 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.
ChapterV
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 Zion 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 Zion 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?
Hymn to God, My God, in My Sickness
Since I am coming to that Holy room, Where, with Thy choir of saints forevermore, I shall be made Thy music; as I come I tune the instrument here at the door, And what I must do then, think here before;
Whilst my physicians by their love are grown Cosmographers, and I their map, who lie Flat on this bed, that by them may be shown That this is my southwest discovery, Per fretum febris, by these straits to die;
I joy, that in these straits I see my west; For, though those currents yield return to none, What shall my west hurt me? As west and east In all flat maps—and I am one—are one, So death doth touch the resurrection.
Is the Pacific sea my home? Or are The eastern riches? Is Jerusalem? Anyan, and Magellan, and Gibraltar? All straits, and none but straits, are ways to them Whether where Japhet dwelt, or Cham, or Shem.
We think that Paradise and Calvary, Christ’s cross and Adam’s tree, stood in one place; Look, Lord, and find both Adams met in me; As the first Adam’s sweat surrounds my face, May the last Adam’s blood my soul embrace.
So, in His purple wrapp’d, receive me, Lord; By these His thorns, give me His other crown; And as to others’ souls I preach’d Thy word, Be this my text, my sermon to mine own, “Therefore that He may raise, the Lord throws down.”
A Hymn to God the Father
I
Wilt Thou forgive that sin where I begun, Which was my sin, though it were done before? Wilt Thou forgive that sin, through which I run, And do run still, though still I do deplore? When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done, For I have more.
II
Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I have won Others to sin, and made my sin their door? Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I did shun A year or two, but wallowed in a score? When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done, For I have more.
III
I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun My last thread, I shall perish on the shore; But swear by Thyself, that at my death Thy Son Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore; And, having done that, Thou hast done; I fear no more.
Colophon
Poetry
was compiled from poetry published between and by John Donne.
The cover page is adapted from Christ in the Realm of the Dead,
a painting completed circa by Joakim Skovgaard.
The cover and title pages feature the League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in and by The League of Moveable Type.
