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Home  »  The Poems of John Donne  »  V. “I am a little world made cunningly”

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

Divine Poems. Holy Sonnets

V. “I am a little world made cunningly”

I AM a little world made cunningly

Of elements, and an angelic sprite;

But black sin hath betray’d to endless night

My world’s both parts, and, O, both parts must die.

You which beyond that heaven which was most high

Have found new spheres, and of new land can write,

Pour new seas in my eyes, that so I might

Drown my world with my weeping earnestly,

Or wash it if it must be drown’d no more.

But, O, it must be burnt; alas! the fire

Of lust and envy burnt it heretofore,

And made it fouler; let their flames retire,

And burn me, O Lord, with a fiery zeal

Of Thee and Thy house, which doth in eating heal.