{
 "id": "john-donne/to-mr-thomas-woodward",
 "title": "To Mr. Thomas Woodward",
 "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"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 52,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "All hail, sweet poet, more full of more strong fire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than hath or shall enkindle my dull spirit;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I loved what nature gave thee, but thy merit",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of wit and art I love not, but admire.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who have before or shall write after thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their works, though toughly laboured, will be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like infancy or age to man’s firm stay,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Or early and late twilights to midday.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Men say, and truly, that they better be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which be envied than pitied; therefore I,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Because I wish thee best, do thee envy;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O, wouldst thou, by like reason, pity me.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But care not for me; I, that ever was",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In nature’s, and in fortune’s gifts, alas",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—But for thy grace, got in the Muses’ school⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A monster and a beggar, am a fool.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh, how I grieve that late-born modesty",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath got such root in easy waxen hearts,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That men may not themselves their own good parts",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Extol, without suspect of surquedry.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For, but thyself, no subject can be found",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Worthy thy quill, nor any quill resound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy worth but thine; how good it were to see",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A poem in thy praise, and writ by thee.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now if this song be too harsh for rhyme, yet, as",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The painters’ bad god made a good devil,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twill be good prose, although the verse be evil.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If thou forget the rhyme as thou dost pass,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then write; then I may follow, and so be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy debtor, thy echo, thy foil, thy zany;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I shall be thought⁠—if mine like thine I shape⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "All the world’s lion, though I be thy ape.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}