Song: Sweetest love, I do not go. Songs and Sonnets. John Donne. 1896. The Poems of John Donne

John Donne (1572–1631). The Poems of John Donne. 1896.

Songs and Sonnets

Song: Sweetest love, I do not go


SWEETEST love, I do not go,
For weariness of thee,
Nor in hope the world can show
A fitter love for me;
But since that I	5
At the last must part, ’tis best,
Thus to use myself in jest
By feigned deaths to die. 1

Yesternight the sun went hence,
And yet is here to-day;	10
He hath no desire nor sense,
Nor half so short a way;
Then fear not me,
But believe that I shall make
Speedier 2 journeys, since I take	15
More wings and spurs than he.

O how feeble is man’s power,
That if good fortune fall,
Cannot add another hour,
Nor a lost hour recall;	20
But come bad chance,
And we join to it our strength,
And we teach it art and length,
Itself o’er us to advance.

When thou sigh’st, thou sigh’st not wind, 3	25
But sigh’st my soul away;
When thou weep’st, unkindly kind,
My life’s blood doth decay.
It cannot be
That thou lovest me as thou say’st,	30
If in thine my life thou waste,
That art the best 4 of me.

Let not thy divining heart
Forethink me any ill;
Destiny may take thy part,	35
And may 5 thy fears fulfil.
But think that we
Are but turn’d aside 6 to sleep.
They who one another keep
Alive, ne’er parted be.	40

Note 1. ll. 6–8. So 1635;

Note 2. l. 15. 1669, Hastier [back]

Note 3. l. 25. 1635, no wind [back]

Note 4. l. 32. So 1635; 1633, Thou art; 1669, Which art the life [back]

Note 5. l. 36. So 1633, 1669; 1635, make [back]

Note 6. l. 38. 1669, laid aside [back]