Ralphius

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

Compassion in the world again is bred;
Ralphius is sick, the broker keeps his bed.

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). “Ralphius.” First published in Poems, by J. D. with Elegies on the Authors Death (1633). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/john-donne/ralphius/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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