To the Countess of Bedford, on New Year's Day

Name: To the Countess of Bedford, on New Year's Day
Author: John Donne

John Donne addresses this New Year's poem to the Countess of Bedford, opening by comparing the twilight between two years—neither past nor next—to his own uncertain, meteor-like state, whose nature and place defy definition. He reckons the years and himself and finds himself neither debtor to the old year nor creditor to the new, unable to say he has forgotten his thanks, yet unwilling to trust this reckoning to hope; what boldness he has comes only because this past time has shown him the Countess. He wishes, in recompense, to show future times what she was, teaching them to strive toward such an example, since verse embalms virtue and preserves frail fame as spice preserves bodies from corruption. Yet he admits his own verses are short-lived: the tincture of her name creates new spirits in them but dissipates quickly, since strong agents waste with the same force that warms, and no body kept hot by strong extracts lasts. So his verse, built solely on her praise, might lack reason and likelihood as its firmest base, and being made of miracle in an age when faith is scant, might vanish and hold no place—so that both she and the verse, through excess of grace, might be disgraced. Even when all confess the truth of her, as truth itself commands, they will still doubt how he—one grain of dust on a low anthill, and less—should be able to name, know, or express so high a thing, measuring infinity with less than an inch. He says he cannot explain this to others, nor to himself, nor to her, and so he leaves off, lest the truth be endangered by his own praise, and turns instead to God, who knows he believes what he has said to be true, and who often, when such a heart mis-speaks in praise, acts to make it true, since such a praiser prays. He declares that God will best teach the Countess how to lay out His store of beauty, learning, favor, and blood. God will trouble her security with doubt, then clear those doubts; He will hide good from her and show her good, increasing her appetite and her food. God will teach her that good and bad do not share the same latitude in cloisters as in court—what is indifferent has the greatest scope at court, where some pity is not good, and some vain disport, though sin on one side, may be permissible on the other. Yet, as He bounds the seas, God will fix her hours so that pleasure and delight may not intrude; and though what no one else has lost is most truly her own, He will make her possess what she herself did not, by using the weaknesses of others (not their vice). He will make her speak truths, and credibly, and make her doubt that others do not do the same; He will provide her keys and locks—to spy, and to escape being spied on, for good ends—and He will show her what she may not acknowledge or know. For her own conscience, God gives innocence; for her reputation, a discreet wariness. Though it is better to escape offence than to revenge it, He shows her both courses, and teaches her to repress joy when her fortune swells and sadness when it lessens. He will defend her soul from any need of tears, or else make a re-baptizing of a single tear; He cannot—that is, He will not—strike her name from His roll. And when, with active joy, this private gospel is heard, that, the poem concludes, is our true New Year.

By John Donne · First published 1633 · Genre: Metaphysical Poetry, Praise Poetry, Occasional Poetry · 827 words

First lines

This twilight of two years, not past, nor next, / Some emblem is of me, or I of this; / Who-meteor-like, of stuff and form perplex'd, / Whose what and where in disputation is- / If I should call me anything, should miss.

I sum the years, and me, and find me not / Debtor to th' old, nor creditor to th' new. / That cannot say, "My thanks I have forgot," / Nor trust I this with hopes; and yet scarce true / This bravery is, since these times show'd me you.

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To the Countess of Bedford, on New Year's Day is listed on Textopian as a poem by John Donne, dated 1633 CE.

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Work type: Poem
Author: John Donne
Date: 1633 CE
Language: English
Genres: Metaphysical Poetry, Praise Poetry, Occasional Poetry, Verse Epistle, Religious Poetry
Length: 827 words
Structure: 1 section, 13 paragraphs
Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)

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Genres

Metaphysical Poetry — Exemplifies Donne's characteristic metaphysical style with elaborate conceits (meteor-like persona, measuring infinity, embalming virtue through verse), intellectual complexity, paradoxical wit, and the fusion of disparate ideas central to the metaphysical school.
Praise Poetry — Functions as elaborate panegyric celebrating the Countess's transcendent virtues and excellence, with the speaker acknowledging his inability to adequately express or measure her worth.
Occasional Poetry — Composed specifically for New Year's Day as indicated in the title, using the temporal threshold between years as a framework for meditation and tribute.
Verse Epistle — Addresses a specific named recipient in verse form, functioning as a formal epistolary poem directed toward the Countess of Bedford with direct address, argument, and blessing.