{
 "id": "john-donne/upon-the-translation-of-the-psalms-by-sir-philip-sidney-and-the-counte",
 "title": "Upon the Translation of the Psalms by Sir Philip Sidney, and the Countess of Pembroke, His Sister",
 "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": "Divine Poems",
 "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": "divine-poems.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",
  "corrections": [
   {
    "line": 2,
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    "now": 2,
    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 5.5 character advances (~2.8 em) right of its own page's base margin, where the verse sets flush. Converted at 3.0 advances per indent level (tools/defects.py indent).",
    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/poemsofjohndonne01donn_1",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   }
  ]
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 56,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
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  "longest_line_chars": 59,
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 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Eternal God⁠—for whom who ever dare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seek new expressions, do the circle square,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And thrust into straight corners of poor wit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thee, who art cornerless and infinite⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I would but bless Thy name, not name Thee now",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—And Thy gifts are as infinite as Thou⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fix we our praises therefore on this one,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That, as thy blessed Spirit fell upon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These Psalms’ first author in a cloven tongue",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—For ’twas a double power by which he sung",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The highest matter in the noblest form⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So Thou hast cleft that Spirit, to performs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That work again, and shed it here, upon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Two, by their bloods, and by Thy Spirit one;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A brother and a sister, made by Thee",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The organ, where Thou art the harmony.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Two that make one John Baptist’s holy voice,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And who that Psalm, “Now let the Isles rejoice,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have both translated, and applied it too,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Both told us what, and taught us how to do.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They show us islanders our Joy, our King;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They tell us why, and teach us how to sing.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Make all this all three choirs, heaven, earth, and spheres;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The first, Heaven, hath a song, but no man hears;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The spheres have music, but they have no tongue,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their harmony is rather danced than sung;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But our third choir, to which the first gives ear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—For angels learn by what the Church does here⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This choir hath all. The organist is he",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who hath tuned God and man, the organ we;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The songs are these, which heaven’s high holy Muse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whisper’d to David, David to the Jews;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And David’s successors in holy zeal,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In forms of joy and art do re-reveal",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To us so sweetly and sincerely too,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That I must not rejoice as I would do,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When I behold that these Psalms are become",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So well attired abroad, so ill at home,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So well in chambers, in Thy Church so ill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As I can scarce call that reform’d until",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This be reform’d; would a whole state present",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A lesser gift than some one man hath sent?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And shall our Church unto our Spouse and King",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "More hoarse, more harsh than any other, sing?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For that we pray, we praise Thy name for this,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which, by this Moses and this Miriam, is",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Already done; and as those Psalms we call,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—Though some have other authors⁠—David’s all,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So though some have, some may some Psalms translate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We Thy Sidneian psalms shall celebrate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, till we come th’ extemporal song to sing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—Learn’d the first hour that we see the King,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who hath translated those translators⁠—may",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These their sweet learned labours all the way",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be as our tuning, that when hence we part,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We may fall in with them, and sing our part!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}