Read "To Mr. Thomas Woodward: at once from Hence my Lines and I Depart" by John Donne online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
At once from hence my lines and I depart, / I to my soft still walks, they to my heart, / I to the nurse, they to the child of art.
Yet as a firm house, though the carpenter / Perish, doth stand; as an ambassador / Lies safe, howe'er his king be in danger;
So, though I languish, press'd with melancholy, / My verse, the strict map of my misery, / Shall live to see that, for whose want I die.
Therefore I envy them, and do repent, / That from unhappy me, things happy are sent. / Yet as a picture, or bare sacrament, / Accept these lines, and if in them there be / Merit of love, bestow that love on me.