{
 "id": "john-donne/to-the-countess-of-bedford",
 "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": 39,
  "n_stanzas": 9,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 52,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Madam⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Reason is our soul’s left hand, faith her right;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By these we reach divinity, that’s you;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Their loves, who have the blessing of your light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grew from their reason; mine from fair faith grew.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But as, although a squint left-handedness",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be ungracious, yet we cannot want that hand;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So would I⁠—not to increase, but to express",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My faith⁠—as I believe, so understand.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Therefore I study you first in your saints,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those friends whom your election glorifies;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then in your deeds, accesses and restraints,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And what you read, and what yourself devise.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But soon the reasons why you’re loved by all,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grow infinite, and so pass reason’s reach;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then back again to implicit faith I fall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And rest on that the Catholic voice doth teach⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "That you are good; and not one heretic",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Denies it; if he did, yet you are so;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For rocks, which high to sense deep-rooted stick,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Waves wash, not undermine, nor overthrow.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In everything there naturally grows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A balsamum to keep it fresh and new,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If ’twere not injured by extrinsic blows;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your birth and beauty are this balm in you.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But you, of learning, and religion,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And virtue, and such ingredients, have made",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A mithridate, whose operation",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Keeps off, or cures, what can be done or said.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet this is not your physic, but your food,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A diet fit for you; for you are here",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The first good angel, since the world’s frame stood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That ever did in woman’s shape appear.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Since you are then God’s masterpiece, and so",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His factor for our loves, do as you do;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Make your return home gracious, and bestow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This life on that; so make one life of two.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For, so God help me, I would not miss you there,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For all the good which you can do me here.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}