| John Donne (1572–1631). The Poems of John Donne. 1896. | | | | Divine Poems | | To the E[arl] of D[oncaster], with Six Holy Sonnets |
| | | SEE, sir, how, as the sun’s hot masculine flame | |
| Begets strange creatures on Nile’s dirty slime, | |
| In me your fatherly yet lusty rhyme | |
| —For these songs are their fruits—have wrought the same. | |
| But though th’ engend’ring force from which they came | 5 |
| Be strong enough, and Nature doth admit | |
| Seven to be born at once; I send as yet | |
| But six; they say the seventh hath still some maim. | |
| I choose your judgment, which the same degree | |
| Doth with her sister, your invention, hold, | 10 |
| As fire these drossy rhymes to purify, | |
| Or as elixir, to change them to gold. | |
| You are that alchemist, which always had | |
| Wit, whose one spark could make good things of bad. | | | | |
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