Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.

By John Donne (1573–1631)

Hymn to God in my Sickness


SINCE 1 I am coming to that holy room,
Where with the choir of saints for evermore
I shall be made Thy music, as I come
I tune the instrument here at the door,
And what I must do then, think here before.	5

We think that Paradise and Calvary,
Christ’s cross and Adam’s tree, stood in one place;
Look, Lord, and find both Adams met in me;
As the first Adam’s sweat surrounds my face,
May the last Adam’s blood my soul embrace.	10

So in His purple wrapp’d receive me, Lord,
By these His thorns give me His other crown;
And as to other souls I preach’d Thy word,
Be this my text, my sermon to mine own:
“Therefore, that He may raise, the Lord throws down.”	15

Note 1. The “Hymn to God” is a portion of the hymn composed on his deathbed. [back]