{
 "id": "john-donne/to-the-countess-of-bedford-5",
 "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-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": 25,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 52,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Though I be dead and buried, yet I have",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—Living in you⁠—court enough in my grave.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As oft as there I think myself to be,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So many resurrections waken me.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That thankfulness, your favours have begot",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In me, embalms me, that I do not rot.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "This season, as ’tis Easter, as ’tis spring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Must both to growth and to confession bring",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My thoughts, disposed unto your influence; so",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These verses bud, so these confessions grow.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "First I confess I have to others lent",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your stock, and over⁠—prodigally spent",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Your treasure, for since I had never known",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Virtue or beauty, but as they are grown",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In you, I should not think or say they shine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—So as I have⁠—in any other mine.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Next I confess this my confession,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For ’tis some fault this much to touch upon",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Your praise to you, where half rights seem too much,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And make your mind’s sincere complexion blush.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Next I confess my impenitence, for I",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Can scarce repent my first fault, since thereby",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Remote low spirits, which shall ne’er read you,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "May in less lessons find enough to do,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By studying copies, not originals.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}