| John Donne (1572–1631). The Poems of John Donne. 1896. | | | | Letters to Several Personages | | Incerto |
| | | AT once from hence my lines and I depart, | |
| I to my soft still walks, they to my heart, | |
| I to the nurse, they to the child of art. | |
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| Yet as a firm house, though the carpenter | |
| Perish, doth stand; as an ambassador | 5 |
| Lies safe, howe’er his king be in danger; | |
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| So, though I languish, press’d with melancholy, | |
| My verse, the strict map of my misery, | |
| Shall live to see that, for whose want I die. | |
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| Therefore I envy them, and do repent, | 10 |
| That from unhappy me, things happy are sent. | |
| Yet as a picture, or bare sacrament, | |
| Accept these lines, and if in them there be | |
| Merit of love, bestow that love on me. | | | | |
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