{
 "id": "john-donne/to-the-lady-bedford",
 "title": "To the Lady 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": 44,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 51,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "You that are she, and you that’s double she,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In her dead face half of yourself shall see.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She was the other part, for so they do",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which build them friendships, become one of two;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So two, that but themselves no third can fit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—Which were to be so, when they were not yet",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Twins, though their birth Cusco and Musco take⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As divers stars one constellation make,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Pair’d like two eyes have equal motion, so",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Both but one means to see, one way to go.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Had you died first, a carcase she had been,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And we your rich tomb in her face had seen;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She like the soul is gone, and you here stay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not a live friend, but th’ other half of clay.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And since you act that part⁠—as men say, “Here",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lies such a prince,” when but one part is there,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And do all honour and devotion due",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unto the whole⁠—so we all reverence you;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For such a friendship who would not adore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In you, who are all what both were before,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Not all, as if some perished by this,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But so, as all in you contracted is.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As of this all, though many parts decay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The pure which elemented them shall stay;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And though diffused, and spread in infinite,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall recollect, and in one All unite;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So, madam, as her soul to heaven is fled,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her flesh rests in the earth, as in the bed;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her virtues do, as to their proper sphere,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Return to dwell with you, of whom they were.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As perfect motions are all circular,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So they to you, their sea, whence less streams are.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She was all spices, you all metals; so",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In you two we did both rich Indies know.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And as no fire nor rust can spend or waste",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One dram of gold, but what was first shall last;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Though it be forced in water, earth, salt, air,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Expansed in infinite, none will impair;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So to yourself you may additions take,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But nothing can you less, or changèd make.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Seek not in seeking new to seem to doubt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That you can match her, or not be without;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But let some faithful book in her room be,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet but of Judith no such book as she.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}