Love-Sonnet (II.). Appendix A. Doubtful Poems. John Donne. 1896. The Poems of John Donne

John Donne (1572–1631). The Poems of John Donne. 1896.

Appendix A. Doubtful Poems

Love-Sonnet (II.)


IS there no day, madam, for you? is all
A sullen night? it is not out of choice;
For watchful virtue never did rejoice
In darkness, when it subject was to fall.
But you are led by some unlucky hand	5
That guides your feet into a path obscure,
Yet looks that you as steadily should stand
As at noonday, and keep your feet as pure.
O, pardon me; should I be guided so
From light, from truth, and from the sight of men,	10
My guides should too late and quickly know
That darkness was the way to Error’s den,
And he should feel, that barr’d me from the light,
The best time to revenge my wrongs were night.