Read "Love's Deity" by John Donne online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
I long to talk with some old lover's ghost, / Who died before the god of love was born. / I cannot think that he, who then loved most, / Sunk so low as to love one which did scorn. / But since this god produced a destiny, / And that vice-nature, custom, lets it be, / I must love her that loves not me.
Sure, they which made him god, meant not so much, / Nor he in his young godhead practised it. / But when an even flame two hearts did touch, / His office was indulgently to fit / Actives to passives. Correspondency / Only his subject was; it cannot be / Love, till I love her, who loves me.