{
 "id": "john-donne/the-undertaking",
 "title": "The Undertaking",
 "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I have done one braver thing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than all the Worthies did;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And yet a braver thence doth spring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which is, to keep that hid.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It were but madness now to impart",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The skill of specular stone,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When he, which can have learn’d the art",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To cut it, can find none.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So, if I now should utter this,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Others⁠—because no more",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Such stuff to work upon, there is⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would love but as before.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But he who loveliness within",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath found, all outward loathes,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For he who colour loves, and skin,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Loves but their oldest clothes.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If, as I have, you also do",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Virtue in woman see,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And dare love that, and say so too,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And forget the He and She;",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And if this love, though placèd so,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From profane men you hide,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Which will no faith on this bestow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or, if they do, deride;",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then you have done a braver thing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than all the Worthies did;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And a braver thence will spring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which is, to keep that hid.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}