Read "The Dream: Dear Love, for Nothing Less than Thee" by John Donne online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
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 brokest not, but continued'st it. / Thou art so true that thoughts of thee suffice / To make dreams truths, and fables histories; / Enter these arms, for since thou thought'st it best, / Not to dream all my dream, let's act the rest.
As lightning, or a taper's light, / Thine eyes, and not thy noise waked me; / Yet I thought thee / -For thou lovest truth-an angel, at first sight; / But when I saw thou saw'st my heart, / And knew'st my thoughts beyond an angel's art, / When thou knew'st what I dreamt, when thou knew'st when / Excess of joy would wake me, and camest then, / I must confess, it could not choose but be / Profane, to think thee anything but thee.