The
Anniversary
by John
Donne
|
| All
Kings, and all their favourites, |
| All
glory of honours, beauties, wits, |
| The sun itself,
which makes times, as they pass, |
| Is elder by a year
now than it was |
| When thou and I
first one another saw : |
| All other things to
their destruction draw, |
| Only our
love hath no decay; |
| This no tomorrow
hath, nor yesterday, |
| Running it never
runs from us away, |
But truly keeps his first, last,
everlasting day.
|
| Two
graves must hide thine and my corse; |
| If one
might, death were no divorce. |
| Alas, as well as
other Princes, we |
| (Who Prince enough
in one another be) |
| Must leave at last
in death these eyes and ears, |
| Oft fed with true
oaths, and with sweet salt tears; |
| But
souls where nothing dwells but love |
| (All other thoughts
being inmates) then shall prove |
| This, or a love
increasèd there above, |
When bodies to their graves,
souls from their graves remove.
|
| And then
we shall be throughly blest; |
| But we
no more than all the rest. |
| Here upon earth
we're Kings, and none but we |
| Can be such Kings,
nor of such objects be; |
| Who is so safe as
we? where none can do |
| Treason to us,
except one of us two. |
| True and
false fears let us refrain, |
| Let us love nobly,
and live, and add again |
| Years and years unto
years, till we attain |
To write threescore: this is the
second of our reign.
|
| John Donne | Classic
Poems
|
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[ Anniversary ] [ Death be not Proud ] [ The Sun Rising ] |
