{
 "id": "john-donne/to-the-countess-of-bedford-4",
 "title": "To the Countess of Bedford",
 "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": "Letters to Several Personages",
 "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": "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": 54,
  "n_stanzas": 18,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 57,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Honour is so sublime perfection,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And so refined, that when God was alone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And creatureless at first, Himself had none.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But as of th’ elements, these which we tread,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Produce all things with which we’re joyed or fed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And those are barren both above our head;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So from low persons doth all honour flow;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Kings, whom they would have honour’d, to us show,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And but direct our honour, not bestow.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For when from herbs the pure part must be won",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From gross, by ’stilling, this is better done",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By despised dung, than by the fire of sun.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Care not then, madam, how low your praises lie;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In labourers’ ballads oft more piety",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God finds, than in Te Deum’s melody;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And ordnance, raised on towers, so many mile",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Send not their voice, nor last so long a while,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As fires from the earth’s low vaults in Sicil isle.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Should I say I lived darker than were true,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your radiation can all clouds subdue;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But One, ’tis best light to contemplate you;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You, for whose body God made better clay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or took souls’ stuff, such as shall late decay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or such as needs small change at the last day.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "This, as an amber drop enwraps a bee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Covering discovers your quick soul, that we",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May in your through-shine front our hearts’ thoughts see.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You teach⁠—though we learn not⁠—a thing unknown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To our late times, the use of specular stone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through which all things within without were shown.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Of such were temples; so, and such you are;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Being and seeming is your equal care;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And virtue’s whole sum is but “Know” and “Dare.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But as our souls of growth and souls of sense",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have birthright of our reason’s soul, yet hence",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They fly not from that, nor seek precedence,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Nature’s first lesson; so discretion",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Must not grudge zeal a place, nor yet keep none,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not banish itself, nor religion.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Discretion is a wise man’s soul, and so",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Religion is a Christian’s, and you know",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How these are one; her “Yea” is not her “No.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Nor may we hope to solder still and knit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These two, and dare to break them; nor must wit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be colleague to religion, but be it.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In those poor types of God, round circles, so",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Religion’s types the pieceless centres flow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And are in all the lines which all ways go.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If either ever wrought in you alone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or principally, then religion",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wrought your ends, and your ways discretion.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Go thither still; go the same way you went;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whoso would change, do covet or repent;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Neither can reach you, great and innocent.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}