The Dissolution
The Dissolution
Original Text
Donne, John. The Elegies and the Songs and Sonnets of John Donne. Edited by Helen Gardner. London: Oxford University Press, 1965: 86.
1 She's dead; and all which die
2 To their first elements resolve;
3And we were mutual elements to us,
4 And made of one another.
5 My body then doth hers involve,
6And those things whereof I consist, hereby
7In me abundant grow, and burdenous,
8 And nourish not, but smother.
9 My fire of passion, sighs of air,
10Water of tears, and earthly sad despair,
11 Which my materials be,
12But near worn out by love's security,
13She, to my loss, doth by her death repair.
14And I might live long wretched so,
15But that my fire doth with my fuel grow.
16 Now, as those active kings
17 Whose foreign conquest treasure brings,
18Receive more, and spend more, and soonest break,
19This (which I am amazed that I can speak)
20 This death, hath with my store
21 My use increased.
22And so my soul, more earnestly released,
23Will outstrip hers; as bullets flown before
24A latter bullet may o'ertake, the powder being more.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire, assisted by Ana Berdinskikh
RPO Edition
2009