Edward Farr, ed. Select Poetry of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. 1845.
Hymne to Christ at the Author’s Last Going into GermanyII. John Donne
I
That ship shall be my embleme of thy arke;
What sea soever swallow mee, that flood
Shall be to mee an embleme of thy blood;
Though thou with clouds of anger do disguise
Thy face, yet through that maske I know those eyes.
Which though thou turne away sometimes,
They never will despise.
And all whom I loved there, and who loved mee;
When I have put our seas ’twixt them and mee,
Put thou thy seas betwixt my sinnes and thee.
As the tree’s sap doth seeke the root below
In winter, in my winter now I goe
Where none but thee, th’ Eternal root
Of true love, I may know.
The amourousnesse of an harmonius soule;
But thou wouldst have that love thyselfe. As thou
Art jealous, Lord, so I am jealous now;
Thou lov’st not till, from loving more, thou free
My soule. Whoever gives, takes libertie:
O, if thou car’st not whom I love,
Alas, thou lov’st not mee.
On whom those fainter beames of love did fall;
Marry those loves, which in youth scattered bee
On Fame, Wit, Hopes, (false mistresses!) to thee.
Churches are best for prayer that have least light:
To see God only I goe out of sight:
And to scape stormy dayes I chuse
An everlasting night.