An Obscure Writer

John Donne (1572–1631) · Poems, by J. D. with Elegies on the Authors Death · Epigrams · 1633

Philo with twelve years’ study hath been grieved
To be understood; when will he be believed?

Where this text comes from

First published in Poems, by J. D. with Elegies on the Authors Death (1633). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-12.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/john-donne_poetry, epigrams.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (3)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L2.

Cite this poem

John Donne (1572–1631). “An Obscure Writer.” First published in Poems, by J. D. with Elegies on the Authors Death (1633). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/john-donne/an-obscure-writer/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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