His Parting From Her: Donne

Elegy XIII: On His Parting From Her

by John Donne SINCE she must go, and I must mourn, come night,  Environ me with darkness, whilst I write; Shadow that hell unto me, which alone I am to suffer when my love is gone. Alas! the darkest magic cannot do it, Thou and great hell, to boot, are shadows to it. Should Cynthia quit thee, Venus, and each star, It would not form one thought dark as mine are. I could lend them obscureness now, and say Out of my self, there should be no more day. Such is already my self-want of sight, Did not the fire within me force a light. O Love, that fire and darkness should be mix'd, Or to thy triumphs such strange torments fix'd! Is it because thou thyself art blind, that we, Thy martyrs, must no more each other see? Or takest thou pride to break us on the wheel, And view old Chaos in the pains we feel? Or have we left undone some mutual rite, That thus with parting thou seek'st us to spite? No, no.  The fault is mine, impute it to me, Or rather to conspiring destiny, Which, since I loved in jest before, decreed That I should suffer, when I loved indeed; And therefore, sooner now than I can say, I saw the golden fruit, 'tis rapt away; Or as I'd watch'd one drop in the vast stream, And I left wealthy only in a dream. Yet, Love, thou'rt blinder than myself in this, To vex my dove-like friend for my amiss; And where one sad truth may expiate Thy wrath, to make her fortune run my fate. So blinded justice doth, when favourites fall, Strike them, their house, their friends, their favourites all. Was't not enough that thou didst dart thy fires Into our bloods, inflaming our desires, And madest us sigh, and blow, and pant, and burn, And then thyself into our flames didst turn? Was't not enough that thou didst hazard us To paths in love so dark and dangerous, And those so ambush'd round with household spies, And over all thy husband's towering eyes, Inflamed with th' ugly sweat of jealousy; Yet went we not still on in constancy? Have we for this kept guards, like spy on spy? Had correspondence whilst the foe stood by? Stolen, more to sweeten them, our many blisses Of meetings, conference, embracements, kisses? Shadow'd with negligence our best respects? Varied our language through all dialects

 Of becks, winks, looks, and often under boards 
Spoke dialogues with our feet far from our words? 
Have we proved all the secrets of our art, 
Yea, thy pale inwards, and thy panting heart? 
And, after all this passed purgatory, 
Must sad divorce make us the vulgar story? 
First let our eyes be riveted quite through 
Our turning brain, and both our lips grow to; 
Let our arms clasp like ivy, and our fear 
Freeze us together, that we may stick here, 
Till Fortune, that would ruin us with the deed, 
Strain his eyes open, and yet make them bleed. 
For Love it cannot be, whom hitherto 
I have accused, should such a mischief do. 
O Fortune, thou'rt not worth my least exclaim, 
And plague enough thou hast in thy own name. 
Do thy great worst ; my friend and I have charms, 
Though not against thy strokes, against thy harms. 
Rend us in sunder ; thou canst not divide 
Our bodies so, but that our souls are tied, 
And we can love by letters still and gifts, 
And thoughts and dreams ; love never wanteth shifts. 
I will not look upon the quickening sun, 
But straight her beauty to my sense shall run; 
The air shall note her soft, the fire, most pure; 
Waters suggest her clear, and the earth sure. 
Time shall not lose our passages; the spring, 
How fresh our love was in the beginning; 
The summer, how it ripen'd in the year; 
And autumn, what our golden harvests were; 
The winter I'll not think on to spite thee, 
But count it a lost season; so shall she. 
And dearest friend, since we must part, drown night 
With hope of day—burdens well borne are light—; 
The cold and darkness longer hang somewhere, 
Yet Phoebus equally lights all the sphere; 
And what we cannot in like portion pay 
The world enjoys in mass, and so we may. 
Be then ever yourself, and let no woe 
Win on your health, your youth, your beauty; so 
Declare yourself base Fortune's enemy, 
No less be your contempt than her inconstancy; 
That I may grow enamour'd on your mind, 
When mine own thoughts I here neglected find. 
And this to the comfort of my dear I vow, 
My deeds shall still be what my deeds are now; 
The poles shall move to teach me ere I start; 
And when I change my love, I'll change my heart. 
Nay, if I wax but cold in my desire, 
Think, heaven hath motion lost, and the world, fire. 
Much more I could, but many words have made 
That oft suspected which men most persuade. 
Take therefore all in this; I love so true, 
As I will never look for less in you.