{
 "id": "john-donne/satire-iii",
 "title": "Satire III",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Donne",
 "poet_slug": "john-donne",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems, by J. D. with Elegies on the Authors Death",
 "book_slug": "poems-1633",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": "Satires",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1633,
  "venue": "Poems, by J. D. with Elegies on the Authors Death (1633)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/donnepoems"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
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  "repo": "standardebooks/john-donne_poetry",
  "file": "satires.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofjohndonne01donn_1",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemswithelegie00chamgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemswithelegie01chamgoog"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12",
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  [
   {
    "text": "Kind pity chokes my spleen; brave scorn forbids",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those tears to issue, which swell my eyelids.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "I must not laugh, nor weep sins, and be wise.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Can railing, then, cure these worn maladies?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is not our mistress, fair Religion,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As worthy of all our souls’ devotion,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As virtue was in the first blinded age?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are not heaven’s joys as valiant to assuage",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lusts, as earth’s honour was to them? Alas,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As we do them in means, shall they surpass",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Us in the end? and shall thy father’s spirit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Meet blind philosophers in heaven, whose merit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of strict life may be imputed faith, and hear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thee, whom he taught so easy ways, and near",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To follow, damn’d? Oh, if thou darest, fear this;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This fear great courage and high valour is.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Darest thou aid mutinous Dutch; and darest thou lay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thee in ships, wooden sepulchres, a prey",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To leaders’ rage, to storms, to shot, to dearth?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Darest thou dive seas, and dungeons of the earth?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hast thou courageous fire to thaw the ice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of frozen North discoveries; and thrice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Colder than salamanders, like divine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Children in th’ oven, fires of Spain and the line,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose countries limbecs to our bodies be,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Canst thou for gain bear? and must every he",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which cries not, “Goddess!” to thy mistress, draw,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or eat thy poisonous words? courage of straw!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O desperate coward, wilt thou seem bold, and",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To thy foes, and his, who made thee to stand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sentinel in his world’s garrison, thus yield,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And for forbid wars leave th’ appointed field?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Know thy foes; the foul devil, he whom thou",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Strivest to please, for hate, not love, would allow",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Thee fain his whole realm to be quit; and as",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The world’s all parts wither away and pass,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So the world’s self, thy other loved foe, is",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In her decrepit wane, and thou loving this,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dost love a wither’d and worn strumpet; last,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flesh, itself’s death, and joys which flesh can taste,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou lovest; and thy fair goodly soul, which doth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Give this flesh power to taste joy, thou dost loathe.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seek true religion, O where? Mirreus,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thinking her unhoused here and fled from us,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seeks her at Rome, there, because he doth know",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That she was there a thousand years ago;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And loves the rags so, as we here obey",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The state-cloth where the prince sat yesterday.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Crants to such brave loves will not be enthrall’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But loves her only who at Geneva ’s call’d",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Religion, plain, simple, sullen, young,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Contemptuous yet unhandsome; as among",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lecherous humours, there is one that judges",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No wenches wholesome, but coarse country drudges.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Graius stays still at home here, and because",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some preachers, vile ambitious bawds, and laws,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still new, like fashions, bid him think that she",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which dwells with us, is only perfect, he",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Embraceth her, whom his godfathers will",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tender to him, being tender; as wards still",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Take such wives as their guardians offer, or",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pay values. Careless Phrygius doth abhor",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All, because all cannot be good; as one,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Knowing some women whores, dares marry none.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gracchus loves all as one, and thinks that so",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As women do in divers countries go",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In divers habits, yet are still one kind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So doth, so is religion; and this blind⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ness too much light breeds. But unmovèd thou",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of force must one, and forced but one allow;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the right. Ask thy father which is she;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let him ask his. Though Truth and Falsehood be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Near twins, yet Truth a little elder is.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be busy to seek her; believe me this,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He’s not of none, nor worst, that seeks the best.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To adore, or scorn an image, or protest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May all be bad. Doubt wisely; in strange way,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To stand inquiring right, is not to stray;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To sleep, or run wrong, is. On a huge hill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cragged and steep, Truth stands, and he that will",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Reach her, about must and about must go,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And what th’ hill’s suddenness resists, win so.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet strive so, that before age, death’s twilight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy soul rest, for none can work in that night.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To will implies delay, therefore now do",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hard deeds, the body’s pains; hard knowledge to",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The mind’s endeavours reach; and mysteries",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are like the sun, dazzling, yet plain to all eyes.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Keep the truth which thou hast found; men do not stand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In so ill case, that God hath with His hand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Signed kings blank-charters, to kill whom they hate;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor are they vicars, but hangmen to fate.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fool and wretch, wilt thou let thy soul be tied",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To man’s laws, by which she shall not be tried",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At the last day? or will it then boot thee",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To say a Philip or a Gregory,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A Harry or a Martin, taught thee this?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is not this excuse for mere contraries",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Equally strong? cannot both sides say so?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That thou mayst rightly obey power, her bounds know;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those past, her nature and name is changed; to be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then humble to her is idolatry.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As streams are, power is; those blest flowers, that dwell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At the rough stream’s calm head, thrive and do well,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But having left their roots, and themselves given",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the stream’s tyrannous rage, alas, are driven",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through mills, rocks, and woods, and at last, almost",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Consumed in going, in the sea are lost.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So perish souls, which more choose men’s unjust",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Power from God claim’d, than God Himself to trust.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}