{
 "id": "john-donne/to-mrs-magdalen-herbert",
 "title": "To Mrs. Magdalen Herbert",
 "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": 52,
  "n_stanzas": 13,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 54,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Mad paper, stay, and grudge not here to burn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With all those sons whom my brain did create;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "At least lie hid with me, till thou return",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To rags again, which is thy native state.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What though thou have enough unworthiness",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To come unto great place as others do;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That’s much⁠—emboldens, pulls, thrusts, I confess;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But ’tis not all; thou shouldst be wicked too.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And that thou canst not learn, or not of me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet thou wilt go; go, since thou goest to her,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who lacks but faults to be a prince, for she",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Truth, whom they dare not pardon, dares prefer.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But when thou comest to that perplexing eye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which equally claims love and reverence,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou wilt not long dispute it, thou wilt die;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, having little now, have then no sense.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet when her warm redeeming hand⁠—which is",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A miracle, and made such to work more⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Doth touch thee, sapless leaf, thou grow’st by this",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her creature, glorified more than before.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then as a mother which delights to hear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her early child misspeak half-uttered words,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Or because majesty doth never fear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ill or bold speech, she audience affords.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And then, cold speechless wretch, thou diest again,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And wisely; what discourse is left for thee?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From speech of ill, and her, thou must abstain;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And is there any good which is not she?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet may’st thou praise her servants, though not her;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And wit, and virtue, and honour her attend;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And since they’re but her clothes, thou shalt not err,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If thou her shape, and beauty, and grace commend.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Who knows thy destiny? when thou hast done,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perchance her cabinet may harbour thee,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Whither all noble ambitious wits do run,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A nest almost as full of good as she.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When thou art there, if any, whom we know,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Were saved before, and did that heaven partake;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When she revolves his papers, mark what show",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of favour, she, alone, to them doth make.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Mark if, to get them, she o’erskip the rest;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mark if she read them twice, or kiss the name;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Mark if she do the same that they protest;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mark if she mark whether her woman came.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Mark if slight things be objected, and o’erblown;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mark if her oaths against him be not still",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Reserved, and that she grieves she’s not her own,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And chides the doctrine that denies freewill.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I bid thee not do this to be my spy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor to make myself her familiar;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But so much I do love her choice, that I",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would fain love him that shall be loved of her.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}