| John Donne (1572–1631). The Poems of John Donne. 1896. | | | | Songs and Sonnets | | A Valediction of Weeping |
| | | LET me pour forth | |
| My tears before thy face, whilst I stay here, | |
| For thy face coins them, and thy stamp they bear, | |
| And by this mintage they are something worth. | |
| For thus they be | 5 |
| Pregnant of thee; | |
| Fruits of much grief they are, emblems of more; | |
| When a tear falls, that thou fall’st which it bore; | |
| So thou and I are nothing then, when on a divers shore. | |
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| On a round ball | 10 |
| A workman, that hath copies by, can lay | |
| An Europe, Afric, and an Asia, | |
| And quickly make that, which was nothing, all. | |
| So doth each tear, | |
| Which thee doth wear, | 15 |
| A globe, yea world, by that impression grow, | |
| Till thy tears mix’d with mine do overflow | |
| This world, by waters sent from thee, my heaven dissolvèd so. | |
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| O! more than moon, | |
| Draw not up seas 1 to drown me in thy sphere; | 20 |
| Weep me not dead, in thine arms, but forbear | |
| To teach the sea, what it may do too soon; | |
| Let not the wind | |
| Example find | |
| To do me more harm than it purposeth: | 25 |
| Since thou and I sigh one another’s breath, | |
| Whoe’er sighs most is cruellest, and hastes the other’s death. | |
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