The Blossom
The Blossom
Original Text
Donne, John. The Elegies and the Songs and Sonnets of John Donne. Edited by Helen Gardner. London: Oxford University Press, 1965: 87-88.
1 Little think'st thou, poor flower,
2 Whom I've watch'd six or seven days,
3And seen thy birth, and seen what every hour
4Gave to thy growth, thee to this height to raise,
5And now dost laugh and triumph on this bough,
6 Little think'st thou,
7That it will freeze anon, and that I shall
8To-morrow find thee fallen, or not at all.
9 Little think'st thou, poor heart,
10 That labourest yet to nestle thee,
11And think'st by hovering here to get a part
12In a forbidden or forbidding tree,
13And hopest her stiffness by long siege to bow:
14 Little think'st thou
15That thou to-morrow, ere the sun doth wake,
16Must with the sun and me a journey take.
17 But thou, which lovest to be
18 Subtle to plague thyself, wilt say,
19Alas ! if you must go, what's that to me?
20Here lies my business, and here I will stay:
21You go to friends, whose love and means present
22 Various content
23To your eyes, ears, and taste, and every part.
24If then your body go, what need your heart?
25 Well then, stay here; but know,
26 When thou hast stay'd and done thy most,
27A naked thinking heart, that makes no show,
28Is to a woman but a kind of ghost;
29How shall she know my heart; or having none,
30 Know thee for one?
31Practice may make her know some other part,
32But take my word, she doth not know a heart.
33 Meet me in London, then,
34 Twenty days hence, and thou shalt see
35Me fresher and more fat, by being with men,
36Than if I had stay'd still with her and thee.
37For God's sake, if you can, be you so too:
38 I will give you
39There to another friend, whom we shall find
40As glad to have my body as my mind.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire, assisted by Ana Berdinskikh
RPO Edition
2009
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