John Donne, The Complete English Poems

"A bride, before a "Good-night" could be said,Should vanish from her clothes into her bed,As souls from bodies steal, and are not spied. But now she's laid; what though she be?Yet there are more delays, for where is he?He comes and passeth through sphere after sphere;First her sheets, then her arms, then anywhere. Let not this day, then, but this night be thine;Thy day was but the eve to this, O Valentine."

"Here lies a she sun, and a he moon there;She gives the best light to his sphere;Or each is both, and all, and so They unto one another nothing owe;And yet they do, but are So just and rich in that coin which they pay,That neither would, nor needs forbear, nor stay;Neither desires to be spared nor to spare. They quickly pay their debt, and then Take no acquittances, but pay again;They pay, they give, they lend, and so let fall No such occasion to be liberal. More truth, more courage in these two do shine,Than all thy turtles have and sparrows, Valentine."

"Love, built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies."

"Only our love hath no decay; This no tomorrow hath, nor yesterday, Running it never runs from us away, But truly keeps his first, last, everlasting day."

"How blest am I in this discovering thee!To enter in these bonds is to be free;Then where my hand is set, my seal shall be. Full nakedness! All joys are due to thee,As souls unbodied, bodies unclothed must be"

"If our two loves be one, or, thou and I Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die."

"And to 'scape stormy days, I choose an everlasting night."

"True and false fears let us refrain, Let us love nobly, and live, and add again Years and years unto years, till we attain To write threescore: this is the second of our reign."

"Love's mysteries in souls do grow,But yet the body is his book."

"My face in thine eye, thine in mine appeares, And true plaine hearts doe in the faces rest, Where can we finde two better hemispheares Without sharpe North, without declining West? What ever dyes, was not mixt equally; If our two loves be one, or, thou and I Love so alike, that none doe slacken, none can die."

"Licence my roving hands, and let them go Before, behind, between, above, below."

"Up then, fair phoenix bride, frustrate the sun;Thyself from thine affection Takest warmth enough, and from thine eye All lesser birds will take their jollity. Up, up, fair bride, and call Thy stars from out their several boxes, take Thy rubies, pearls, and diamonds forth, and make Thyself a constellation of them all;And by their blazing signify That a great princess falls, but doth not die. Be thou a new star, that to us portends Ends of much wonder; and be thou those ends."

"I am two fools, I know,For loving, and for saying so."