false 3964357 1 John Donne's love poetry is a magnetic mix of the soul singing, intellectual rigor, and the lascivious prod. Seductions abound, but go hand in hand with metaphors of science, discovery, and conquest: "License my roving hands, and let them go, / Behind, before, above, between, below. / O my America! my new-found-land, / My kingdom, safeliest when with one man manned ..." In "The Flea," the speaker even uses a revolting parasite to persuade his young woman to bed. Since the flea has bitten both of them already, he urges, why should they not commingle on a larger scale? But in one of Donne's trademark reversals, the argument fails when the woman squashes the offending insect. <p> "The Good Morrow" is a good deal more romantic, opening: "I wonder by my troth, what thou and I / Did, till we loved?" Lines such as "And now good morrow to our waking souls, / Which watch not one another out of fear; / For love all love of other sights controls, / And makes one little room an everywhere" have even made the poem a wedding standard. ("The Sun Rising" is another nuptial favorite.) As usual, however, the poet adds a tincture of imperfection to the vision: the persona's excuse (charming but dubious), "If ever any beauty I did see, / Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee." Though readers might concentrate on the love songs and sonnets, John Carey's edition of the <i>Selected Poetry</i> offers much more, including satires, epigrams, and Donne's brilliant holy sonnets. As rugged, brilliantly contorted, and fraught with feeling as his more diurnal poetry, they are also equally concerned with inconstancy--Donne was born a Catholic, but converted to Anglicanism in 1593. "Batter my heart, three-personed God" ends: "Take me to You, imprison me, for I / Except You' enthrall me, never shall be free, / Nor ever chaste, except You ravish me." 4010084 24 10 1996 Selected Poetry (World's Classics) total:10|5:4|4:3|3:3|2:0|1:0| 10 41 11 1 3964357 0192824996 9780192824998 10 1 4.10 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3964357.Selected_Poetry 5 0 false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Nov 12 14:41:44 -0800 2008 Wed Nov 12 14:45:09 -0800 2008 2
My favourite poems are:

A Hymm To Christ: At the Author's Last Going To Germany
To His Mistress Going...more...]]> 3964357 0192824996 9780192824998 10 1 4.10 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3964357.Selected_Poetry 3 0 false Mon Dec 14 11:11:48 -0800 2009 Mon Dec 14 11:11:59 -0800 2009 3964357 0192824996 9780192824998 10 1 4.10 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3964357.Selected_Poetry 4 0 false Sat Dec 05 17:12:11 -0800 2009 Sat Dec 05 17:12:11 -0800 2009 3964357 0192824996 9780192824998 10 1 4.10 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3964357.Selected_Poetry 5 0 false Tue Sep 29 06:42:54 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 29 06:42:54 -0700 2009 3964357 0192824996 9780192824998 10 1 4.10 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3964357.Selected_Poetry 5 0 false Mon Sep 21 12:34:33 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 21 12:34:33 -0700 2009 3964357 0192824996 9780192824998 10 1 4.10 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3964357.Selected_Poetry 3 0 false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Sat Jul 04 11:30:27 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 04 11:30:27 -0700 2009 3964357 0192824996 9780192824998 10 1 4.10 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3964357.Selected_Poetry 4 0 false Thu Apr 02 15:01:04 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 02 15:01:06 -0700 2009 3964357 0192824996 9780192824998 10 1 4.10 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3964357.Selected_Poetry 0 0 false Wed Feb 25 22:29:36 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 25 22:29:36 -0800 2009 3964357 0192824996 9780192824998 10 1 4.10 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3964357.Selected_Poetry 4 0 false Fri Aug 31 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Jan 12 20:49:31 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 12 20:49:31 -0800 2009 3964357 0192824996 9780192824998 10 1 4.10 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3964357.Selected_Poetry 5 0 false Sun Jan 11 22:57:53 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 11 22:57:53 -0800 2009 3964357 0192824996 9780192824998 10 1 4.10 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3964357.Selected_Poetry 3 0 false Sat Aug 02 15:33:43 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 02 15:33:52 -0700 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=3964357