| John Donne (1572–1631). The Poems of John Donne. 1896. | | | | Songs and Sonnets | | Woman’s Constancy |
| | | NOW thou hast loved me one whole day, | |
| To-morrow when thou leavest, what wilt thou say? | |
| Wilt thou then antedate some new-made vow? | |
| Or say that now | |
| We are not just those persons which we were? | 5 |
| Or that oaths made in reverential fear | |
| Of Love, and his wrath, any may forswear? | |
| Or, as 1 true deaths true marriages untie, | |
| So lovers’ contracts, images of those, | |
| Bind but till sleep, death’s image, them unloose? | 10 |
| Or, your own end to justify, | |
| For having purposed change and falsehood, you | |
| Can have no way but falsehood to be true? | |
| Vain lunatic, against these ’scapes I could | |
| Dispute, and conquer, if I would; | 15 |
| Which I abstain to do, | |
| For by to-morrow I may think so too. | |
| | | Note 1. l. 8. So 1633, 1669; 1635. For as, lines 8–10 being in brackets. [back] | | |
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