John Donne. 1573-1631
198. The Ecstasy
1 min to read
122 words

WHERE, like a pillow on a bed,   A pregnant bank swell'd up, to rest The violet's reclining head,   Sat we two, one another's best.

Our hands were firmly cemented   By a fast balm which thence did spring; Our eye-beams twisted, and did thread   Our eyes upon one double string.

So to engraft our hands, as yet   Was all the means to make us one; And pictures in our eyes to get   Was all our propagation.

As 'twixt two equal armies Fate   Suspends uncertain victory, Our souls—which to advance their state   Were gone out—hung 'twixt her and me.

And whilst our souls negotiate there,   We like sepulchral statues lay; All day the same our postures were,   And we said nothing, all the day.

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John Donne. 1573-1631
199. The Dream
1 min to read
230 words
Return to The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250–1900






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