Selected Poetry

by Donne, John; Carey, John

• ISBN13: 9780192834904
• ISBN10: 0192834908
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-11-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

John Donne (1572-1631) is perhaps the most important poet of the seventeenth century. In his day it seemed to his admirers that Donne had changed the literary universe, and he is now widely regarded as the founder of the metaphysical 'school'. Donne's poetry is highly distinctive and individual, adopting a multitude of rhythms, images, forms, and personae, from irresistible seducerto devout believer. His greatness stems from the subtleties and ambivalences of tone that convey his remarkably modern awareness of the instability of the self. This collection of Donne's verse is chosen from the Oxford Authors critical edition of his major works. It includes a wide selection from his secular and divine poems, such as the rebellious and libertine satires and love elegies, the virtuoso Songs and Sonnets, and the desperate, passionate HolySonnets. John Carey's introduction and extensive notes provide valuable insights into Donne's poetic genius.

Author Biography

John Carey is Merton Professor of English Literature at Oxford University.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xi
Chronology	xxiii
Note on the Text	xxvii
SATIRES
[Away thou fondling motley humourist]	1	(3)
[Sir; though (I thank God for it)]	4	(2)
[Kind pity chokes my spleen]	6	(3)
[Well; I may now receive]	9	(6)
[Thou shalt not laugh]	15	(4)
LOVE ELEGIES
[The Bracelet]	19	(3)
To his Mistress Going to Bed	22	(1)
Jealousy	23	(1)
The Anagram	24	(1)
Change	25	(1)
The Perume	26	(2)
His Picture	28	(1)
On Sir Thomas Egerton	29	(1)
[Oh, let me not serve so]	30	(1)
Love's War	31	(1)
On his Mistress	32	(2)
[Nature's lay idiot]	34	(1)
Love's Progress	34	(3)
The Comparison	37	(1)
The Autumnal	38	(175)
Sappho to Philaenis	40	(2)
EPITHALAMIONS
Epithalamion Made at Lincoln's Inn	42	(2)
An Epithalamion, or Marriage Song on the Lady Elizabeth and Count Palatine being Married on St Valentine's Day [Hail Bishop Valentine]	44	(4)
EARLY VERSE LETTERS
To Mr T. W. [Pregnant again with th' old twins]	48	(1)
To Mr S. B. [O thou which to search out]	48	(1)
To Mr T. W. [At once, from hence]	49	(1)
To Mr E. G. [Even as lame things]	49	(1)
The Storm	50	(2)
The Calm	52	(1)
To Mr Rowland Woodward [Like one who in her third widowhood doth profess]	53	(2)
To Sir Henry Wotton [Here's no more news]	55	(1)
To Sir Henry Wotton, at his going Ambassador to Venice [After those reverend papers]	56	(2)
EPIGRAMS
Hero and Leander	58	(1)
Pyramus and Thisbe	58	(1)
Niobe	58	(1)
A Burnt Ship	58	(1)
Fall of a Wall	59	(1)
A Lame Beggar	59	(1)
Cales and Guiana	59	(1)
Sir John Wingfield	59	(1)
A Self-Accuser	59	(1)
A Licentious Person	60	(1)
Antiquary	60	(1)
The Juggler	60	(1)
Disinherited	60	(1)
The Liar	60	(1)
Mercurius Gallo-Belgicus	60	(1)
Phryne	61	(1)
An Obscure Writer	61	(1)
Klockius	61	(1)
Raderus	61	(1)
Ralphius	61	(1)
The Progress of the Soul. Metempsychosis	62	(19)
SONGS AND SONNETS
The Flea	81	(1)
The Good Morrow	82	(1)
Song [Go and catch a falling star]	82	(1)
Woman's Constancy	83	(1)
The Undertaking	84	(1)
The Sun Rising	85	(1)
The Indifferent	86	(1)
Love's Usury	86	(1)
The Canonization	87	(2)
The Triple Fool	89	(1)
Lovers' Infiniteness	89	(1)
Song [Sweetest love, I do not go]	90	(1)
The Legacy	91	(1)
A Fever	92	(1)
Air and Angels	93	(1)
Break of Day	94	(1)
The Anniversary	95	(1)
A Valediction: of my Name in the Window	96	(2)
Twickenham Garden	98	(1)
A Valediction: of the Book	98	(2)
Community	100	(1)
Love's Growth	101	(1)
Love's Exchange	102	(1)
Confined Love	103	(1)
The Dream [Dear love, for nothing less]	104	(1)
A Valediction: of Weeping	105	(1)
Love's Alchemy	105	(1)
The Curse	106	(1)
The Message	107	(1)
A Nocturnal upon St Lucy's Day	108	(1)
Witchcraft by a Picture	109	(1)
The Bait	110	(1)
The Apparition	111	(1)
The Broken Heart	111	(1)
A Valediction: forbidding Mourning	112	(1)
The Ecstasy	113	(3)
Love's Deity	116	(1)
Love's Diet	117	(1)
The Will	118	(1)
The Funeral	119	(1)
The Blossom	120	(1)
The Primrose	121	(1)
The Relic	122	(1)
The Damp	123	(1)
The Dissolution	124	(1)
A Jet Ring Sent	125	(1)
Negative Love	125	(1)
The Prohibition	126	(1)
The Expiration	126	(1)
The Computation	127	(1)
The Paradox	127	(1)
Farewell to Love	128	(1)
A Lecture upon the Shadow	129	(1)
The Dream [Image of her whom I love]	130	(1)
LATER VERSE LETTERS
To Sir Henry Goodyer [Who makes the past]	131	(1)
To the Countess of Bedford [Madam, | Reason is our soul's left hand]	132	(2)
To the Countess of Bedford [Madam, | You have refined me]	134	(2)
To Mrs M. H. [Mad paper stay]	136	(1)
To the Countess of Bedford at New Year's Tide	137	(2)
To the Countess of Bedford [Honour is so sublime]	139	(2)
To the Countess of Huntingdon [Madam, | Man to God's image]	141	(3)
To Sir Edward Herber, at Juliers	144	(1)
To the Countess of Bedford, Begun in France but Never Perfected [Though I be dead]	145	(1)
Epitaph on Himself, To the Countess of Bedford [Madam, | That I might make your cabinet]	146	(1)
POEMS ABOUT DEATHS
Elegy on the Lady Markham [Man is the world]	147	(1)
To the Lady Bedford [You that are she and you]	148	(2)
Elegy on Mistress Bulstrode [Death I recant]	150	(2)
An Elegy upon the Death of Mistress Bulstrode [Language thou art too narrow]	152	(1)
To the Countess of Bedford [To have written then]	153	(3)
A Funeral Elegy ['Tis lost, to trust]	156	(2)
An Anatomy of the World. The First Anniversary	158	(12)
Of the Progress of the Soul. The Second Anniversary	170	(14)
DIVINE POEMS
The Cross	184	(1)
Resurrection, imperfect	185	(1)
Upon the Annunciation and Passion falling upon one day. 1608	186	(2)
A Litany	188	(8)
To Mrs Magdalen Herbert: of St Mary Magdalene	196	(1)
La Corona	197	(3)
HOLY SONNETS
[As due by many titles]	200	(1)
[Oh my black soul]	200	(1)
[This is my play's last scene]	201	(1)
[At the round earth's imagined corners]	201	(1)
[If poisonous minerals]	201	(1)
[Death be not proud]	202	(1)
To E. of D. with Six Holy Sonnets	202	(1)
[Spit in my face you Jews]	203	(1)
[Why are we by all creatures]	203	(1)
[What if this present]	203	(1)
[Batter my heart]	204	(1)
[Wilt thou love God]	204	(1)
[Father, part of his double interest]	205	(1)
[Thou hast made me]	205	(1)
[O might those sighs and tears]	205	(1)
[I am a little world]	206	(1)
[If faithful souls]	206	(1)
[Since she whom I loved]	207	(1)
[Show me dear Christ]	207	(1)
[Oh, to vex me]	207	(1)
Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward	208	(5)
A Hymn to Christ, at the Author's last going into Germany	209	(1)
Hymn to God my God, in my Sickness	210	(1)
A Hymn to God the Father	211	(2)
Notes	213	(44)
Further Reading	257	(2)
Index of Poem Titles and First Lines	259