Woman's Constancy
Woman's Constancy
Original Text
Donne, John. The Elegies and the Songs and Sonnets of John Donne. Edited by Helen Gardner. London: Oxford University Press, 1965: 42-43.
1Now thou hast loved me one whole day,
2Tomorrow when thou leav’st, what wilt thou say?
3Wilt thou then antedate some new-made vow?
4 Or say that now
5We are not just those persons, which we were?
6Or, that oaths made in reverential fear
7Of Love, and his wrath, any may forswear?
8Or, as true deaths true marriages untie,
9So lovers' contracts, images of those,
10Bind but till sleep, death's image, them unloose?
11 Or, your own end to justify,
12For having purposed change and falsehood, you
13Can have no way but falsehood to be true?
14Vain lunatic, against these ‘scapes I could
15 Dispute, and conquer, if I would,
16 Which I abstain to do,
17For by tomorrow I may think so too.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire, assisted by Ana Berdinskikh
RPO Edition
2009