Explore "To the Countess of Bedford: you have Refined me, and to Worthiest Things" by John Donne on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Madam- / You have refined me, and to worthiest things- / Virtue, art, beauty, fortune. Now I see / Rareness or use, not nature, value brings; / And such, as they are circumstanced, they be. / Two ills can ne'er perplex us, sin to excuse; / But of two good things we may leave and choose.
Therefore at court-which is not virtue's clime, / Where a transcendent height (as lowness me) / Makes her not be, or not show-all my rhyme / Your virtues challenge, which there rarest be; / For, as dark texts need notes, there some must be / To usher Virtue, and say, "This is she."