{
 "id": "john-donne/to-sir-edward-herbert-now-lord-herbert-cherbury-being-at-the-siege-of-",
 "title": "To Sir Edward Herbert, Now Lord Herbert Cherbury, Being at the Siege of Juliers",
 "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": 50,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 52,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Man is a lump, where all beasts kneaded be;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wisdom makes him an ark, where all agree.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The fool, in whom these beasts do live at jar,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is sport to others, and a theatre.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor ’scapes he so, but is himself their prey;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All which was man in him, is eat away;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And now his beasts on one another feed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet couple in anger, and new monsters breed.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "How happy’s he, which hath due place assign’d",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To his beasts, and disafforested his mind;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Impaled himself to keep them out, not in;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Can sow, and dares trust, corn where they have been;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Can use his horse, goat, wolf, and every beast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And is not ass himself to all the rest.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Else, man not only is the herd of swine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But he’s those devils too, which did incline",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Them to a headlong rage, and made them worse;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For man can add weight to heaven’s heaviest curse.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As souls (they say) by our first touch take in",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The poisonous tincture of original sin,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So, to the punishments which God doth fling,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our apprehension contributes the sting.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To us, as to His chickens, He doth cast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hemlock, and we, as men, His hemlock taste.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "We do infuse to what He meant for meat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Corrosiveness, or intense cold or heat;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For God no such specific poison hath",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As kills, we know not how; His fiercest wrath",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath no antipathy, but may be good",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At least for physic, if not for our food.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thus man, that might be His pleasure, is His rod,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And is His devil, that might be his God.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Since then our business is to rectify",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nature, to what she was, we’re led awry",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "By them, who man to us in little show,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Greater than due; no form we can bestow",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On him, for man into himself can draw",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All; all his faith can swallow, or reason chaw.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "All that is filled and all that which doth fill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All the round world, to man is but a pill;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In all it works not, but it is in all",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Poisonous, or purgative, or cordial;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For knowledge kindles calentures in some,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And is to others icy opium.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As brave as true is that profession then",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which you do use to make⁠—that you know man.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "This makes it credible; you have dwelt upon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All worthy books, and now are such an one.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Actions are authors, and of those in you",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your friends find, every day, a mart of new.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}