Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/265

 JOHN DONNE

Then thy sick taper will begin to wink,

And he, whose thou art then, being tired before,

Will, if thou stir, or pinch to wake him, think

Thou calPst for more, And in false sleep will from thee shrink, And then poor aspen wretch, neglected thou Bath'd in a cold quicksilver sweat wilt lie

A verier ghost than I; What I will say I will not tell thee now, Lest that preserve thee; and since my love is spent, I had rather thou shouldst painfully repent, Than by my threat'nings rest still innocent.

��208 The Ecstasy

r HERE, 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.

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