Ode: Vengeance will Sit above our Faults. Divine Poems. John Donne. 1896. The Poems of John Donne

John Donne (1572–1631). The Poems of John Donne. 1896.

Divine Poems

Ode: Vengeance will Sit above our Faults


1.	VENGEANCE will sit above our faults; but till
	She there do 1 sit,
	We see her not, nor them. Thus, blind, yet still
	We lead her way; and thus, whilst we do ill,
	We suffer it.	5

2.	Unhappy he whom youth makes not beware
	Of doing ill.
	Enough we labour under age, and care;
	In number, th’ errors of the last place are
	The greatest still.	10

3.	Yet we, that should the ill we now begin
	As soon repent,
	Strange thing! perceive not; our faults are not seen,
	But past us; neither felt, but only in
	The punishment.	15

4.	But we know ourselves least; mere outward shows
	Our minds so store,
	That our souls no more than our eyes disclose
	But form and colour. Only he who knows
	Himself, knows more.	20

Note 1. l. 2. So 1650; 1635, doth [back]