Read "The Paradox" by John Donne online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
No lover saith, I love, nor any other / Can judge a perfect lover; / He thinks that else none can or will agree, / That any loves but he; / I cannot say I loved, for who can say / He was kill'd yesterday. / Love with excess of heat, more young than old, / Death kills with too much cold; / We die but once, and who loved last did die, / He that saith, twice, doth lie; / For though he seem to move, and stir a while, / It doth the sense beguile. / Such life is like the light which bideth yet / When the life's light is set, / Or like the heat which fire in solid matter / Leaves behind, two hours after. / Once I loved and died; and am now become / Mine epitaph and tomb; / Here dead men speak their last, and so do I; / Love-slain, lo! here I die.