Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/264

 JOHN DONNE

Teach me to hear mermaids singing, Or to keep off envy's stinging,

And find

What wind Serves to advance an honest mind.

If thou be'st born to strange sights,

Things invisible to see, Ride ten thousand days and nights

Till Age snow white hairs on thee; Thou, when thou re turn 'st, wilt tell me All strange wonders that befell thee, And bwcar No where Lives a woman true and fair.

If thou find'st one, let me know; Such a pilgrimage were sweet. Yet do not; I would not go,

Though at next door we might meet. Though she were true when you met her, And last till you write your letter, Yet she Will be False, ere I come, to two or three.

207 The Apparition

WHEN by thy scorn, O murd'ress I am dead, And that thou thinkst thee free From all solicitation from me, Then shall my ghost come to thy bed, And thee, fain'd vestal, in worse arms shall see;

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