John Donne
A Nocturnal Upon St Lucy's Day
Tis the years midnight, and it is the days, | |||||
Lucys, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks, | |||||
The sun is spent, and now his flasks | |||||
Send forth light squibs, no constant rays; | |||||
5 | The worlds whole sap is sunk; | ||||
The general balm th hydroptic earth hath drunk, | |||||
Whither, as to the beds feet, life is shrunk, | |||||
Dead and interred; yet all these seem to laugh, | |||||
Compared with me, who am their epitaph. | |||||
10 | Study me then, you who shall lovers be | ||||
At the next world, that is, at the next spring; | |||||
For I am every dead thing, | |||||
In whom love wrought new alchemy. | |||||
For his art did express | |||||
15 | A quintessence even from nothingness, | ||||
From dull privations, and lean emptiness; | |||||
He ruined me, and I am re-begot | |||||
Of absence, darkness, death; things which are not. | |||||
All others, from all things, draw all thats good, | |||||
20 | Life, soul, form, spirit, whence they being have; | ||||
I, by Loves limbeck, am the grave | |||||
Of all thats nothing. Oft a flood | |||||
Have we two wept, and so | |||||
Drowned the whole world, us two; oft did we grow | |||||
25 | To be two chaoses, when we did show | ||||
Care to aught else; and often absences | |||||
Withdrew our souls, and made us carcasses. | |||||
But I am by her death (which word wrongs her) | |||||
Of the first nothing the elixir grown; | |||||
30 | Were I a man, that I were one, | ||||
I needs must know; I should prefer, | |||||
If I were any beast, | |||||
Some ends, some means; yea plants, yea stones detest, | |||||
And love; all, all some properties invest; | |||||
35 | If I an ordinary nothing were, | ||||
As shadow, a light and body must be here. | |||||
But I am none; nor will my sun renew. | |||||
You lovers, for whose sake the lesser sun | |||||
At this time to the Goat is run | |||||
40 | To fetch new lust, and give it you, | ||||
Enjoy your summer all; | |||||
Since she enjoys her long nights festival, | |||||
Let me prepare towards her, and let me call | |||||
This hour her vigil, and her eve, since this | |||||
45 | Both the years, and the days deep midnight is. | ||||
Robert Clark