Explore "Eclogue: 1613, December 26" by John Donne on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Allophanes finding Idios in the country in Christmas time, reprehends his absence from court, at the marriage of the Earl of Somerset; Idios gives an account of his purpose therein, and of his actions there.
Unseasonable man, statue of ice, / What could to country's solitude entice / Thee, in this year's cold and decrepit time? / Nature's instinct draws to the warmer clime / Even smaller birds, who by that courage dare / In numerous fleets sail through their sea, the air. / What delicacy can in fields appear, / Whilst Flora herself doth a frieze jerkin wear? / Whilst winds do all the trees and hedges strip / Of leaves, to furnish rods enough to whip / Thy madness from thee, and all springs by frost / Have taken cold, and their sweet murmurs lost? / If thou thy faults or fortunes wouldst lament / With just solemnity, do it in Lent. / At court the spring already advanced is, / The sun stays longer up; and yet not his / The glory is; far other, other fires. / First, zeal to prince and state, then love's desires / Burn in one breast, and like heaven's two great lights, / The first doth govern days, the other, nights. / And then that early light which did appear / Before the sun and moon created were, / The prince's favour, is diffused o'er all, / From which all fortunes, names, and natures fall. / Then from those wombs of stars, the bride's bright eyes, / At every glance, a constellation flies, / And sows the court with stars, and doth prevent / In light and power, the all-eyed firmament. / First her eyes kindle other ladies' eyes, / Then from their beams their jewels' lustres rise, / And from their jewels torches do take fire, / And all is warmth, and light, and good desire. / Most other courts, alas! are like to hell, / Where in dark places, fire without light doth dwell; / Or but like stoves; for lust and envy get / Continual, but artificial heat. / Here zeal and love grown one all clouds digest, / And make our court an everlasting east. / And canst thou be from thence?