Read "To Mr. Rowland Woodward: Muse not that by Thy Mind Thy Body is Led" by John Donne online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Muse not that by thy mind thy body is led: / For by thy mind, my mind's distempered. / So thy care lives long, for I bearing part / It eats not only thine, but my swoll'n heart. / And when it gives us intermission / We take new hearts for it to feed upon. / But as a lay man's genius doth control / Body and mind; the Muse being the soul's soul / Of poets, that methinks should ease our anguish, / Although our bodies wither and minds languish. / Wright then, that my griefs which thine got may be / Cured by thy charming sovereign melody.