{
 "id": "john-donne/the-calm",
 "title": "The Calm",
 "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": "Letters to Several Personages",
 "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": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/john-donne_poetry",
  "file": "letters-to-several-personages.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",
  "corrections": [
   {
    "line": 2,
    "field": "indent",
    "was": 0,
    "now": 1,
    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 4.2 character advances (~2.1 em) right of its own page's base margin, where the verse sets flush. Converted at 3.0 advances per indent level (tools/defects.py indent).",
    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/poemsofjohndonne01donn_1",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   }
  ]
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 56,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 52,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Our storm is past, and that storm’s tyrannous rage",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A stupid calm, but nothing it, doth ’suage.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The fable is inverted, and far more",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A block afflicts, now, than a stork before.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Storms chafe, and soon wear out themselves, or us;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In calms, Heaven laughs to see us languish thus.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As steady as I could wish my thoughts were,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Smooth as thy mistress’ glass, or what shines there,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sea is now, and, as these isles which we",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seek, when we can move, our ships rooted be.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As water did in storms, now pitch runs out;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As lead, when a fired church becomes one spout.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all our beauty and our trim decays,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like courts removing, or like ended plays.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The fighting-place now seamen’s rags supply;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the tackling is a frippery.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No use of lanterns; and in one place lay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Feathers and dust, today and yesterday.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Earth’s hollownesses, which the world’s lungs are,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have no more wind than th’ upper vault of air.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We can nor lost friends nor sought foes recover,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But meteor-like, save that we move not, hover.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only the calenture together draws",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dear friends, which meet dead in great fishes’ maws;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And on the hatches, as on altars, lies",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each one, his own priest and own sacrifice.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who live, that miracle do multiply,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where walkers in hot ovens do not die.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If in despite of these we swim, that hath",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No more refreshing than a brimstone bath;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But from the sea into the ship we turn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like parboil’d wretches, on the coals to burn.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like Bajazet encaged, the shepherds’ scoff,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or like slack-sinew’d Samson, his hair off,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Languish our ships. Now as a myriad",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of ants durst th’ emperor’s loved snake invade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The crawling gallies, seagulls, finny chips,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Might brave our pinnaces, now bed-rid ships.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whether a rotten state, and hope of gain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or to disuse me from the queasy pain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of being beloved and loving, or the thirst",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of honour or fair death, out-push’d me first,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I lose my end; for here, as well as I,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A desperate may live, and coward die.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stag, dog, and all which from or towards flies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is paid with life or prey, or doing dies.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fate grudges us all, and doth subtly lay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A scourge, ’gainst which we all forget to pray.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He that at sea prays for more wind, as well",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Under the poles may beg cold, heat in hell.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What are we then? How little more, alas,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is man now, than, before he was, he was?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nothing for us, we are for nothing fit;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Chance, or ourselves, still disproportion it.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We have no power, no will, no sense; I lie,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I should not then thus feel this misery.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}