John Donne - Delphi Poets Series (15 page)

Seal then this bill of my divorce to all,
On whom those fainter beams of love did fall;
Marry those loves, which in youth scatter’d be
On fame, wit, hopes — false mistresses — to Thee.
Churches are best for prayer, that have least light;
To see God only, I go out of sight;
    And to escape stormy days, I choose
   An everlasting night.

THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMY, FOR THE MOST PART ACCORDING TO TREMELLIUS.

CHAP. I.

  I. HOW sits this city, late most populous,
      Thus solitary, and like a widow thus?
      Amplest of nations, queen of provinces
      She was, who now thus tributary is?

  2. Still in the night she weeps, and her tears fall
      Down by her cheeks along, and none of all
      Her lovers comfort her; perfidiously
      Her friends have dealt, and now are enemy.

  3. Unto great bondage, and afflictions,
      Judah is captive led; those nations
      With whom she dwells, no place of rest afford;
      In straits she meets her persecutors’ sword.

  4. Empty are the gates of Sion, and her ways
      Mourn, because none come to her solemn days.
      Her priests do groan, her maids are comfortless;
      And she’s unto herself a bitterness.

  5. Her foes are grown her head, and live at peace,
      Because, when her transgressions did increase,
      The Lord strook her with sadness; the enemy
      Doth drive her children to captivity.

  6. From Sion’s daughter is all beauty gone;
      Like harts which seek for pasture, and find none,
      Her princes are; and now before the foe
      Which still pursues them, without strength they go.

  7. Now in their days of tears, Jerusalem
      — Her men slain by the foe, none succouring them —
      Remembers what of old she esteemed most,
      Whiles her foes laugh at her, for what she hath lost.

  8. Jerusalem hath sinn’d, therefore is she
      Removed, as women in uncleanness be;
      Who honour’d, scorn her, for her foulness they
      Have seen; herself doth groan, and turn away.

  9. Her foulness in her skirts was seen, yet she
      Remember’d not her end; miraculously
      Therefore she fell, none comforting; behold,
      O Lord, my affliction, for the foe grows bold.

10. Upon all things where her delight hath been,
      The foe hath stretch’d his hand, for she hath seen
      Heathen, whom thou command’st, should not do so,
      Into her holy sanctuary go.

11. And all her people groan, and seek for bread;
      And they have given, only to be fed,
      All precious things, wherein their pleasure lay;
      How cheap I’m grown, O Lord, behold, and weigh.

12. All this concerns not you, who pass by me;
      O see, and mark if any sorrow be
      Like to my sorrow, which Jehovah hath
      Done to me in the day of His fierce wrath?

13. That fire, which by Himself is governed
      He hath cast from heaven on my bones, and spread
      A net before my feet, and me o’erthrown,
      And made me languish all the day alone.

14. His hand hath of my sins framèd a yoke
      Which wreathed, and cast upon my neck, hath broke
      My strength; the Lord unto those enemies
      Hath given me, from whom I cannot rise.

15. He under foot hath trodden in my sight
      My strong men; He did company accite
      To break my young men; He the winepress hath
      Trod upon Judah’s daughter in His wrath.

16. For these things do I weep; mine eye, mine eye
      Casts water out; for He which should be nigh
      To comfort me, is now departed far;
      The foe prevails, forlorn my children are.

17. There’s none, though Sion do stretch out her hand,
      To comfort her; it is the Lord’s command
      That Jacob’s foes girt him; Jerusalem
      Is as an unclean woman amongst them.

18. But yet the Lord is just, and righteous still;
      I have rebell’d against His holy will;
      O hear all people, and my sorrow see,
      My maids, my young men in captivity.

19. I called for my lovers then, but they
      Deceived me, and my priests, and elders lay
      Dead in the city; for they sought for meat
      Which should refresh their souls, and none could get.

20. Because I am in straits, Jehovah, see!
      My heart o’erturn’d, my bowels muddy be;
      Because I have rebell’d so much, as fast
      The sword without, as death within, doth waste.

21. Of all which here I mourn, none comforts me;
      My foes have heard my grief, and glad they be,
      That Thou hast done it; but Thy promised day
      Will come, when, as I suffer, so shall they.

22. Let all their wickedness appear to Thee;
      Do unto them, as Thou hast done to me,
      For all my sins; the sighs which I have had
      Are very many, and my heart is sad.

CHAP. II.

  I. HOW over Sion’s daughter hath God hung
      His wrath’s thick cloud? and from heaven hath flung
      To earth the beauty of Israel, and hath
      Forgot His foot-stool in the day of wrath?

  2. The Lord unsparingly hath swallowed
      All Jacob’s dwellings, and demolished
      To ground the strengths of Judah, and profaned
      The Princes of the kingdom, and the land.

  3. In heat of wrath, the horn of Israel He
      Hath clean cut off, and lest the enemy
      Be hinder’d, His right hand He doth retire,
      But is towards Jacob all-devouring fire.

  4. Like to an enemy He bent His bow;
      His right hand was in posture of a foe,
      To kill what Sion’s daughter did desire,
      ‘Gainst whom His wrath He poured forth like fire.

  5. For like an enemy Jehovah is,
      Devouring Israel, and his palaces,
      Destroying holds, giving additions
      To Judah’s daughters’ lamentations.

  6. Like to a garden hedge He hath cast down
      The place where was His congregation,
      And Sion’s feasts and sabbaths are forgot;
      Her King, her Priest, His wrath regardeth not.

  7. The Lord forsakes His altar, and detests
      His sanctuary, and in the foes’ hands rests
      His palace, and the walls, in which their cries
      Are heard, as in the true solemnities.

  8. The Lord hath cast a line, so to confound
      And level Sion’s walls unto the ground;
      He draws not back His hand, which doth o’erturn
      The wall, and rampart, which together mourn.

  9. Their gates are sunk into the ground, and He
      Hath broke the bar; their king and princes be
      Amongst the heathen, without law, nor there
      Unto their prophets doth the Lord appear.

10. There Sion’s Elders on the ground are placed,
      And silence keep; dust on their heads they cast;
      In sackcloth have they girt themselves, and low
      The virgins towards ground their heads do throw.

11. My bowels are grown muddy, and mine eyes
      Are faint with weeping; and my liver lies
      Pour’d out upon the ground, for misery
      That sucking children in the streets do die.

12. When they had cryed unto their mothers, “Where
      Shall we have bread, and drink?” they fainted there,
      And in the streets like wounded persons lay,
      Till ‘twixt their mothers’ breasts they went away.

13. Daughter Jerusalem, O what may be
      A witness, or comparison for thee?
      Sion, to ease thee, what shall I name like thee?
      Thy breach is like the sea; what help can be?

14. For thee vain foolish things thy prophets sought;
      Thee, thine iniquities they have not taught,
      Which might disturb thy bondage; but for thee
      False burthens, and false causes they would see.

15. The passengers do clap their hands, and hiss
      And wag their head at thee, and say, “Is this
      That city, which so many men did call
      Joy of the earth, and perfectest of all?”

16. Thy foes do gape upon thee, and they hiss,
      And gnash their teeth, and say, “Devour we this,
      For this is certainly the day which we
      Expected, and which now we find, and see.”

17. The Lord hath done that which He purposèd;
      Fulfill’d His word of old determinèd;
      He hath thrown down, and not spared, and thy foe
      Made glad above thee, and advanced him so.

18. But now their hearts unto the Lord do call;
      Therefore, O walls of Sion, let tears fall
      Down like a river, day and night; take thee
      No rest, but let thine eye incessant be.

19. Arise, cry in the night, pour out thy sins,
      Thy heart, like water, when the watch begins;
      Lift up thy hands to God, lest children die,
      Which, faint for hunger, in the streets do lie.

20. Behold, O Lord, consider unto whom
      Thou hast done this; what, shall the women come
      To eat their children of a span? shall Thy
      Prophet and priest be slain in sanctuary?

21. On ground in streets the young and old do lie;
      My virgins and young men by sword do die;
      Them in the day of Thy wrath Thou hast slain;
      Nothing did Thee from killing them contain.

22. As to a solemn feast, all whom I fear’d
      Thou call’st about me; when Thy wrath appear’d,
      None did remain or scape, for those which I
      Brought up, did perish by mine enemy.

CHAP. III.

  1. I AM the man which have affliction seen,
      Under the rod of God’s wrath having been;
  2. He hath led me to darkness, not to light,
  3. And against me all day, His hand doth fight.

  4. He hath broke my bones, worn out my flesh and skin,
  5. Built up against me; and hath girt me in
      With hemlock, and with labour; 6.  And set me
      In dark, as they who dead for ever be.

  7. He hath hedged me lest I ‘scape, and added more
      To my steel fetters heavier than before.
  8. When I cry out He outshuts my prayer; 9.  And hath
      Stopp’d with hewn stone my way, and turn’d my path.

10. And like a lion hid in secrecy,
      Or bear which lies in wait, He was to me.
11. He stops my way, tears me, made desolate;
12. And He makes me the mark He shooteth at.

13. He made the children of His quiver pass
      Into my reins.  14.  I, with my people, was
      All the day long, a song and mockery.
15. He hath fill’d me with bitterness, and He

      Hath made me drunk with wormwood.  16.  He hath burst
      My teeth with stones, and cover’d me with dust.
17. And thus my soul far off from peace was set,
      And my prosperity I did forget.

18. My strength, my hope — unto myself I said —
      Which from the Lord should come, is perished;
19. But when my mournings I do think upon,
      My wormwood, hemlock, and affliction,

20. My soul is humbled in rememb’ring this;
21. My heart considers, therefore, hope there is.
22. ‘Tis God’s great mercy we’re not utterly
      Consumed, for His compassions do not die;

23. For every morning they renewed be,
      For great, O Lord, is Thy fidelity.
24. The Lord is — saith my soul — my portion,
      And therefore in Him will I hope alone.

25. The Lord is good to them, who on Him rely,
      And to the soul that seeks Him earnestly.
26. It is both good to trust, and to attend
      The Lord’s salvation unto the end.

27. ‘Tis good for one His yoke in youth to bear.
28. He sits alone, and doth all speech forbear,
      Because he hath borne it.  29.  And his mouth he lays
      Deep in the dust, yet then in hope he stays.

30. He gives his cheeks to whosoever will
      Strike him, and so he is reproached still.
31. For not for ever doth the Lord forsake;
32. But when He hath struck with sadness, He doth take

      Compassion, as His mercy’s infinite;
33. Nor is it with His heart, that He doth smite,
34. That underfoot the prisoners stamped be,
35. That a man’s right the judge himself doth see

      To be wrung from him;  36.  That he subverted is
      In his just cause, the Lord allows not this.
37. Who then will say, that aught doth come to pass,
      But that which by the Lord commanded was?

38. Both good and evil from His mouth proceeds;
39. Why then grieves any man for his misdeeds?
40. Turn we to God, by trying out our ways;
41. To Him in heav’n our hands with hearts upraise.

42. We have rebell’d, and fallen away from Thee;
      Thou pardon’st not;  43.  Usest no clemency;
      Pursuest us, kill’st us, cover’st us with wrath;
44. Cover’st Thyself with clouds, that our prayer hath

      No power to pass.  45.  And Thou hast made us fall
      As refuse, and off-scouring to them all.
46. All our foes gape at us.   47. Fear and a snare
      With ruin, and with waste upon us are.

48. With watery rivers doth mine eye o’erflow
      For ruin of my people’s daughters so;
49. Mine eye doth drop down tears incessantly,
50. Until the Lord look down from heav’n to see.

51. And for my city daughters’ sake, mine eye
      Doth break mine heart.   52.  Causeless mine enemy
      Like a bird chased me.   53. In a dungeon
      They’ve shut my life, and cast on me a stone.

54. Waters flow’d o’er my head; then thought I, I am
      Destroy’d; 55. I called, Lord, upon Thy name
      Out of the pit;  56. And Thou my voice didst hear;
      O from my sigh and cry, stop not Thine ear.

57. Then when I call’d upon Thee, Thou drew’st near
      Unto me, and said’st unto me, “Do not fear.”
58. Thou, Lord, my soul’s cause handled hast, and Thou
      Rescuest my life.   59. O Lord, do Thou judge now.

      Thou heardst my wrong, 60. Their vengeance, all they’ve wrought;
61. How they reproach’d, Thou’st heard, and what they thought;
62. What their lips utter’d, which against me rose,
      And what was ever whisper’d by my foes.

63. I am their song, whether they rise or sit;
64. Give them rewards, Lord, for their working fit,
65. Sorrow of heart, Thy curse; 66. And with Thy might
      Follow, and from under heaven destroy them quite.