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80 lines
3.4 KiB
XML
80 lines
3.4 KiB
XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
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<!DOCTYPE poem PUBLIC "-//Megginson//DTD Simple Poem//EN" "poem.dtd">
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<poem>
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<front>
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<title>Elegy XIX: To His Mistress Going to Bed</title>
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<author>John Donne, d.1631</author>
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<revision-history>
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<item>1997-12-08: XML markup added by David Megginson,
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dmeggins@microstar.com</item>
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</revision-history>
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</front>
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<body>
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<stanza>
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<line n="1">Come, Madam, come, all rest my powers defy,</line>
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<line n="2">Until I labor, I in labor lie.</line>
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<line n="3">The foe oft-times having the foe in sight,</line>
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<line n="4">Is tir'd with standing though he never fight.</line>
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<line n="5">Off with that girdle, like heaven's Zone glittering,</line>
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<line n="6">But a far fairer world encompassing.</line>
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<line n="7">Unpin that spangled breastplate which you wear,</line>
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<line n="8">That th'eyes of busy fools may be stopt there.</line>
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<line n="9">Unlace your self, for that harmonious chime,</line>
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<line n="10">Tells me from you, that now it is bed time.</line>
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<line n="11">Off with that happy busk, which I envie,</line>
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<line n="12">That still can be, and still can stand so nigh.</line>
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<line n="13">Your gown going off, such beautious state reveals,</line>
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<line n="14">As when from flow'ry meads th'hills shadow steals.</line>
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<line n="15">Off with that wiry Coronet and show</line>
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<line n="16">The hairy diadem which on you doth grow:</line>
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<line n="17">Now off with those shoes, and then softly tread</line>
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<line n="18">In this, love's hallow'd temple, this soft bed.</line>
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<line n="19">In such white robes, heaven's Angels us'd to be</line>
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<line n="20">Receiv'd by men: thou Angel bringst with thee?</line>
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<line n="21">A heaven like Mahomet's Paradice, and though</line>
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<line n="22">Ill spirits walk in white, we eas'ly know,</line>
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<line n="23">By this these Angels from an evil sprite,</line>
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<line n="24">Those set our hairs, but these our flesh upright.</line>
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</stanza>
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<stanza>
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<line n="25">License my roving hands, and let them go,</line>
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<line n="26">Behind, before, above, between, below.</line>
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<line n="27">O my America! my new-found-land,</line>
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<line n="28">My kingdom, safeliest when with one man man'd,</line>
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<line n="29">My mine of precious stones: my emperie,</line>
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<line n="30">How blest am I in this discovering thee!</line>
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<line n="31">To enter in these bonds, is to be free;</line>
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<line n="32">Then where my hand is set, my seal shall be.</line>
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</stanza>
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<stanza>
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<line n="33">Full nakedness! All joys are due to thee,</line>
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<line n="34">As souls unbodied, bodies uncloth'd must be,</line>
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<line n="35">To taste whole joyes. Gems which you women use</line>
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<line n="36">Are like Atlanta's balls, cast in mens views,</line>
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<line n="37">That when a fool's eye lighteth on a gem,</line>
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<line n="38">His earthly soul may covet theirs, not them:</line>
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<line n="39">Like pictures or like books gay coverings made</line>
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<line n="40">For lay-men, are all women thus array'd.</line>
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<line n="41">Themselves are mystick books, which only wee</line>
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<line n="42">(Whom their imputed grace will dignify)</line>
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<line n="43">Must see rever'd. Then since that I may know;</line>
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<line n="44">As liberally, as to a midwife show</line>
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<line n="45">Thyself: cast all, yea, this white linen hence,</line>
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<line n="46">There is no penance due to innocence.</line>
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</stanza>
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<stanza>
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<line n="47">To teach thee I am naked first; why than,</line>
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<line n="48">What needst thou have more covering then a man?</line>
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</stanza>
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</body>
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</poem>
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