‘Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not soe’
With their intricate arguments, startling conceits and dazzling wit, the seventeenth-century poets who became known as ‘metaphysical’ brought a new ingenuity and energy to English verse. John Donne’s poems are some of the most passionate and profound to be written on both secular and spiritual love, from the playful eroticism of ‘To his Mistris Going to Bed’ to the dramatic force of his Holy Sonnets. George Herbert’s religious verse, including ‘Easter-wings’, drew on unusual images such as music and money to create works that are intensely personal and devotional. And Andrew Marvell encompassed love poetry like ‘To His Coy Mistress’, philosophical dialogues, public odes and pastoral verse. All the poets collected here, who also include Henry Vaughan, Thomas Traherne and Richard Crashaw, can be seen fusing intellect and learning with powerful emotion to create some of the most individual and original poetry in the language.
Helen Gardner’s acclaimed edition contains an introduction placing works in their historical context, biographical notes for each poet and indexes of first lines and authors.
The Metaphysical Poets - Introduced and Edited by Helen Gardner
Introduction
Note on the Text
Preface to the Second Edition
Preface to the Third Edition
Sir Walter Ralegh
The Passionate Mans Pilgrimage
"What is our Life?"
Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke
Caelica: Sonnets 87 and 88
Chorus Sacerdotum
Robert Southwell
Marige Magdalens Complaint
The Burning Babe
New Heaven, New Warre
William Shakespeare
The Phoenix and the Turtle
William Alabaster
Upon the Ensignes of Christes Crucifyinge
Incarnatio est maximum donum Dei
Sir Henry Wotton
A Hymn to my God in a night of my late Sicknesse
On his Mistris, the Queen of Bohemia
Upon the Sudden Restraint of the Earle of Somerset
John Donne
Satyre: Of Religion
Elegie: His Picture
Elegie: On his Mistris
Elegie: To his Mistris Going to Bed
The Calme
The Flea
The Good-Morrow
Song: "Goe, and catche a falling starre"
The Undertaking
The Sunne Rising
The Canonization
Song: "Sweetest love, I do no goe"
Aire and Angels
The Anniversarie
Twicknam Garden
Loves Growth
The Dreame
A Valediction: of Weeping
Loves Alchymie
A Nocturnall upon S. Lucies day
The Apparition
A Valediction: forbidding mourning
The Extasie
Loves Deitie
The Will
The Relique
The Expiration
To Mr. Rowland Woodward
Holy Sonnets: Divine Meditations
1. "As due by many titles I resigne"
2. "Oh my blacke Soule! now thou art summoned"
3. "This is my playes last scene, here heavens appoint"
4. "At the round earths imagin'd corners, blow"
5. "If poysonous mineralls, and if that tree"
6. "Death be not proud, though some have called thee"
Holy Sonnet: "Batter my heart, three person'd God; for, you"
Holy Sonnet: "Since she whome I lovd, hath payd her last debt"
Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward
A Hymne to Christ, at the Authors last going into Germany
Hymne to God my God, in my sicknesse
A Hymne to God the Father
Ben Jonson
Epitaph on S. P.
My Picture left in Scotland
A Hymne to God the Father
Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury
To his Watch, when he could not sleep
Elegy over a Tomb
Sonnet of Black Beauty
An Ode upon a Question moved, Whether Love should continue for ever?
Aurelian Townshend
To the Countesse of Salisbury
Youth and Beauty
A Dialogue betwixt Time and a Pilgrime
Song: "Though regions farr devided"
To the Lady May
Upon Kinde and True Love
Sir Francis Kynaston
To Cynthia. On concealment of her beauty
To Cynthia. On her changing
Henry King
Sonnet: "Tell me no more how fair she is"
The Surrender
The Exequy
Sic Vita
My Midnight Meditation
A Contemplation upon Flowers
Francis Quarles
On Those that Deserve It
On Zacheus
A Forme of Prayer
Wherefore hidest thou thy face
My beloved is mine, and I am his
George Herbert
The Agonie
Redemption
Easter-wings
Affliction
Prayer
The Temper
Jordan (I)
Deniall
Vanitie
Vertue
The Pearl
Man
Life
Mortification
Jordan (II)
Dialogue
The Collar
The Pulley
The Flower
Aaron
The Forerunners
Discipline
Death
Love
Thomas Carew
An Elegie upon the death of Dr. John Donne
Mediocritie in love rejected
To my inconstant Mistris
Perswasions to enjoy
Boldnesse in love
Elegy on Maria Wentworth
To Ben. Jonson
To a Lady that desired I would love her
Song: "Aske me no more where Jove bestowes"
To Master George Sands
Owen Felltham
Song: "When, Dearest, I but think on thee"
William Habington
Against them who lay unchastity to the sex of Women
Nox nocti indicat Scientiam
Song: "Fine young folly, though you were"
Thomas Randolph
An Elegie
Upon his Picture
On a maide of honour
Sir William Davenant
To the Queene, entertain'd at night
For the Lady, Olivia Porter
Song: "The Lark now leaves his watry Nest"
Endimion Porter and Olivia
The Philosopher and the Lover
The Souldier going to the Field
Edmund Waller
To my young Lady, Lucy Sidney
The selfe-banished
Song: "Go lovely Rose"
Of my Lady Isabella playing on the Lute
An Apologie for having loved before
Of the Last Verses in the Book
Sir Richard Fanshawe
An Ode upon His Majesties Proclamation
The Fall
John Milton
On Shakespear
On the University Carrier
On Time
Sir John Suckling
Song: "Why so pale and wan fond Lover?"
Sonnet: "Of thee (kind boy) I ask no red and white)
Sonnet: "Oh! for some honest Lovers ghost"
Song: "Out upon it, I have lov'd"
Sidney Godolphin
Constancye
Song: "Or love me lesse, or love me more"
Song: "Noe more unto my thoughts appeare"
Hymn: "Lord when the wise men came from farr"
William Cartwright
To Chloe who wish'd her self young enough for me
A New-years-gift to Brian Lord Bishop of Sarum
On the Queens Return from the Low Countries
Richard Crashaw
Wishes to his (supposed) Mistresse
On Hope, by way of Question and Answer, between A. Cowley, and R. Crashaw
And he answered them nothing
To our Lord, upon the Water made Wine
The Weeper
An Hymne of the Nativity, sung as by the Shepherds
Hymn to Sainte Teresa
Charitas Nimia: or the Deare Bargain
A Letter to the Countess of Denbigh
John Cleveland
To the State of Love, or the Senses Festival
The Antiplatonick
Epitaph on the Earl of Strafford
Abraham Cowley
The Change
Ode: Of Wit
On the Death of Mr. Crashaw
Drinking
Hymn to Light
Richard Lovelace
To Lucasta, Going to the Warres
To Amarantha, Thatshe would dishevell her haire
Gratiana dauncing and singing
The Scrutinie
The Grasse-hopper
To Althea, from Prison
Andrew Marvell
A Dialogue between The Resolved Soul, and Created Pleasure
On a Drop of Dew
The Coronet
Eyes and Tears
Bermudas
A Dialogue between the Soul and Body
The Nymph complaining for the death of her Faun
To his Coy Mistress
The Fair Singer
The Definition of Love
The Picture of little T. C. in a Prospect of Flowers
The Mower to the Glo-Worms
The Garden
An Horatian Ode upon Cromwel's Return from Ireland
Henry Vaughan
Regeneration
The Showre
The Retreate
"Come, come, what doe I here?"
The Morning-watch
"Silence, and stealth of dayes! 'tis now"
Peace
The Dawning
The World
Man
"I walkt the other day (to spend my hour)"
"They are all gone into the world of light!"
Cock-crowing
The Starre
The Night
The Water-fall
Quickness
Thomas Stanley
The Magnet
The Repulse
La Belle Confidente
John Hall
The Call
An Epicurean Ode
On an Houre-glasse
Thomas Traherne
On News
Shadows in the Water
John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester
The Mistress
A Song: "Absent from thee I languish still"
A Song of a Young Lady. To her Ancient Lover
Love and Life
Upon Nothing
Thomas Heyrick
On a Sunbeam
On the Death of a Monkey
Richard Leigh
The Eccho
Sleeping on her Couch
John Norris of Bemerton
Hymn to Darkness
Select Reading List
Biographical Notes
Index of First Lines
Index of Authors
