JOHN DONNE

��ip 8. The Ecstasy

YJTfHERE, like a pillow on a bed, A pregnant bank swelPd up, to rest The violet's reclining head, Sat we two, one another's best.

Our hands were firmly cemented

By a fast balm which thence did spring ;

Our eye-beams twisted, and did thread Our eyes upon one double string.

So to engraft our hands, as yet

Was all the means to make us one;

And pictures in our eyes to get Was all our propagation.

As 'twixt two equal armies Fate

Suspends uncertain victory, Our souls which to advance their state

Were gone out hung 'twixt her and me.

And whilst our souls negotiate there, We like sepulchral statues lay ;

All day the same our postures were, And we said nothing, all the day,

199. The 'Dream

DEAR love, for nothing less than thee Would I have broke this happy dream ,

It was a theme

For reason, much too strong for fantasy. Therefore thou waked'st me wisely; yet My dream thou brok'st not, but continued'st it.

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