Love's Diet. Songs and Sonnets. John Donne. 1896. The Poems of John Donne

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

Songs and Sonnets

Love’s Diet


TO what a cumbersome unwieldiness
And burdenous corpulence my love had grown,
But that I did, to make it less,
And keep it in proportion,
Give it a diet, made it feed upon	5
That which love worst endures, discretion.

Above one sigh a day I allow’d him not,
Of which my fortune, and my faults had part;
And if sometimes by stealth he got
A she sigh from my mistress’ heart,	10
And thought to feast on that, I let him see
’Twas neither very sound, nor meant to me.

If he wrung from me a tear, I brined it so
With scorn or shame, that him it nourish’d not;
If he suck’d hers, I let him know	15
’Twas not a tear which he had got;
His drink was counterfeit, as was his meat;
For eyes, 1 which roll towards all, weep not, but sweat.

Whatever he would dictate I writ 2 that,
But burnt her letters when she writ 3 to me;	20
And if that 4 favour made him fat,
I said, “If any title be
Convey’d by this, ah! what doth it avail,
To be the fortieth name 5 in an entail?”

Thus I reclaim’d my buzzard love, to flie	25
At what, and when, and how, and where I choose.
Now negligent of sports 6 I lie,
And now, as other falconers use,
I spring a mistress, swear, write, sigh, and weep;
And the game kill’d, or lost, go talk or sleep. 7	30

Note 1. l. 18. 1669, Her eyes [back]

Note 2. l. 19. So 1633, 1669; 1650, Whate’er might him distaste, I still writ that [back]

Note 3. l. 20. So 1635; 1633, my letters; 1669, my letters which she writ [back]

Note 4. l. 21. So 1635; 1633, that that [back]

Note 5. l. 24. 1669, fortieth man [back]

Note 6. l. 27. 1635, sport [back]

Note 7. l. 30. So 1635; 1633, and sleep [back]