{
 "id": "john-donne/the-prohibition",
 "title": "The Prohibition",
 "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": "Songs and Sonnets",
 "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": "songs-and-sonnets.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"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 46,
  "max_indent": 3
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Take heed of loving me;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "At least remember, I forbade it thee;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not that I shall repair my unthrifty waste",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of breath and blood, upon thy sighs and tears,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By being to thee then what to me thou wast;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But so great joy our life at once outwears.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then, lest thy love by my death frustrate be,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If thou love me, take heed of loving me.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Take heed of hating me,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Or too much triumph in the victory;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not that I shall be mine own officer,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And hate with hate again retaliate;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But thou wilt lose the style of conqueror,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If I, thy conquest, perish by thy hate.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then, lest my being nothing lessen thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If thou hate me, take heed of hating me.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet love and hate me too;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "So these extremes shall ne’er their office do;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Love me, that I may die the gentler way;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hate me, because thy love’s too great for me;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or let these two, themselves, not me, decay;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So shall I live thy stage, not triumph be.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lest thou thy love and hate, and me undo,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O let me live, yet love and hate me too.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}