{
 "id": "john-donne/to-the-countess-of-bedford-on-new-years-day",
 "title": "To the Countess of Bedford, on New Year’s Day",
 "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": 65,
  "n_stanzas": 13,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 57,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "This twilight of two years, not past, nor next,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some emblem is of me, or I of this;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who⁠—meteor-like, of stuff and form perplex’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose what and where in disputation is⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If I should call me anything, should miss.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I sum the years, and me, and find me not",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Debtor to th’ old, nor creditor to th’ new.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That cannot say, “My thanks I have forgot,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor trust I this with hopes; and yet scarce true",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "This bravery is, since these times show’d me you.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In recompense I would show future times",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What you were, and teach them to urge towards such.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Verse embalms virtue; and tombs, or thrones, of rhymes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Preserve frail transitory fame, as much",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As spice doth bodies from corrupt airs’ touch.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Mine are short-lived; the tincture of your name",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Creates in them, but dissipates as fast,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "New spirits; for strong agents with the same",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Force, that doth warm and cherish us, do waste;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Kept hot with strong extracts, no bodies last.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So, my verse, built of your just praise, might want",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Reason and likelihood, the firmest base;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And made of miracle, now faith is scant,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will vanish soon, and so possess no place;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And you, and it, too much grace might disgrace.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When all⁠—as truth commands assent⁠—confess",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All truth of you, yet they will doubt how I",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "—One corn of one low anthill’s dust, and less⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Should name, know, or express a thing so high,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And⁠—not an inch⁠—measure infinity.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I cannot tell them, nor myself, nor you,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But leave, lest truth be endanger’d by my praise,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And turn to God, who knows I think this true,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And useth oft, when such a heart mis-says,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To make it good, for such a praiser prays.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He will best teach you, how you should lay out",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His stock of beauty, learning, favour, blood;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He will perplex security with doubt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And clear those doubts; hide from you, and show you good;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And so increase your appetite and food.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He will teach you, that good and bad have not",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One latitude in cloisters, and in court;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Indifferent there the greatest space hath got;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some pity’s not good there; some vain disport,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On this side sin, with that place may comport.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet He, as He bounds seas, will fix your hours,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which pleasure and delight may not ingress;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And, though what none else lost be truliest yours,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He will make you, what you did not, possess,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "By using others’ (not vice, but) weakness.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He will make you speak truths, and credibly,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And make you doubt that others do not so;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He will provide you keys, and locks, to spy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ’scape spies, to good ends, and He will show",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "What you may not acknowledge, what not know.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For your own conscience, He gives innocence,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But, for your fame, a discreet wariness;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And⁠—though to ’scape, than to revenge offence",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be better⁠—He shows both, and to repress",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Joy, when your state swells, sadness, when ’tis less.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "From need of tears He will defend your soul,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or make a re-baptizing of one tear;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He cannot⁠—that ’s, He will not⁠—dis-enroll",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your name; and when with active joy we hear",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "This private gospel, then ’tis our New Year.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}