John Donne (1572-1631)
The Expiration
1So, so, break off this last lamenting kiss,
2 Which sucks two souls, and vapours both away,
3Turn thou ghost that way, and let me turn this,
4 And let ourselves benight our happiest day,
5We ask none leave to love; nor will we owe
6 Any so cheap a death as saying, "Go."
7Go; and if that word have not quite killed thee,
8 Ease me with death, by bidding me go too.
9Or, if it have, let my word work on me,
10 And a just office on a murderer do.
11Except it be too late, to kill me so,
12 Being double dead, going, and bidding, "Go."
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: Donne, John. The Elegies and the Songs and Sonnets of John Donne. Edited by Helen Gardner. London: Oxford University Press, 1965: 36-37.
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire, assisted by Ana Berdinskikh
RP edition: 2009
Recent editing: 1:2009/7/2
Form: sestets
Rhyme: ababcc
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