{
 "id": "john-donne/to-mr-tilman-after-he-had-taken-orders",
 "title": "To Mr. Tilman After He Had Taken Orders",
 "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-1635",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": "Divine Poems",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1635,
  "venue": "Poems, by J. D. with Elegies on the Authors Death (1635)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1475-1640_poems-_donne-john-poems-by-j_1635"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/john-donne_poetry",
  "file": "divine-poems.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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   {
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    "now": 2,
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    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/poemsofjohndonne01donn_1",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   }
  ]
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 54,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
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  "longest_line_chars": 56,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou, whose diviner soul hath caused thee now",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To put thy hand unto the holy plough,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Making lay-scornings of the ministry",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not an impediment, but victory;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What bring’st thou home with thee? how is thy mind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Affected since the vintage? Dost thou find",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "New thoughts and stirrings in thee? and, as steel",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Touch’d with a loadstone, dost new motions feel?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or, as a ship after much pain and care",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For iron and cloth brings home rich Indian ware,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hast thou thus traffick’d, but with far more gain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of noble goods, and with less time and pain?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou art the same materials, as before,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only the stamp is changèd, but no more.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And as new crowned kings alter the face,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But not the money’s substance, so hath grace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Changed only God’s old image by creation,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To Christ’s new stamp, at this thy coronation;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or, as we paint angels with wings, because",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They bear God’s message and proclaim His laws,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Since thou must do the like and so must move,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Art thou new feather’d with celestial love?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dear, tell me where thy purchase lies, and show",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What thy advantage is above, below.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But if thy gainings do surmount expression,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why doth the foolish world scorn that profession,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose joys pass speech? Why do they think unfit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That gentry should join families with it?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As if their day were only to be spent",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In dressing, mistressing and compliment.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alas! poor joys, but poorer men, whose trust",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seems richly placèd in sublimèd dust,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—For such are clothes and beauty, which though gay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are, at the best, but of sublimèd clay⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let then the world thy calling disrespect,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But go thou on, and pity their neglect.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What function is so noble, as to be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ambassador to God, and destiny?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To open life? to give kingdoms to more",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than kings give dignities? to keep heaven’s door?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mary’s prerogative was to bear Christ, so",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis preachers’ to convey Him, for they do,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As angels out of clouds, from pulpits speak;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bless the poor beneath, the lame, the weak.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If then th’ astronomers, whereas they spy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A newfound star, their optics magnify,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How brave are those, who with their engine can",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bring man to heaven, and heaven again to man?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These are thy titles and pre-eminences,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In whom must meet God’s graces, men’s offences;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And so the heavens which beget all things here,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And th’ earth, our mother, which these things doth bear;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Both these in thee, are in thy calling knit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And make thee now a blest hermaphrodite.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}