XIX

Oh, to vex me, contraries meet in one:
Inconstancy unnaturally hath begot
A constant habit; that when I would not
I change in vows, and in devotion.
As humorous is my contrition
As my profane love, and as soon forgot:
As riddlingly distempered, cold and hot,
As praying, as mute; as infinite, as none.
I durst not view heaven yesterday; and today
In prayers, and flattering speeches I court God:
Tomorrow I quake with true fear of his rod.
So my devout fits come and go away
Like a fantastic ague: save that here
Those are my best days, when I shake with fear.

Where this text comes from

First published in Edmund Gosse, The Life and Letters of John Donne, Dean of St. Paul's (London, William Heinemann, 1899), vol. II, Appendix C, among the Holy Sonnets printed from the Westmoreland MS.; “Oh, to vex me, contraries meet in one”. Not in any of the old editions of the Poems: twelve of the Holy Sonnets were printed in 1633 and four more added in 1635, and Gosse states that the series of nineteen “have never, until now, been printed in complete form”, giving the Westmoreland text in an appendix to his second volume. Grierson's 1912 edition records that the three Westmoreland sonnets had already been printed by Gosse. [1] [2]

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Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/john-donne_poetry, divine-poems.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (3)

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Cite this poem

John Donne (1572–1631). “XIX.” First published in Edmund Gosse, The Life and Letters of John Donne, Dean of St. Paul's (London, William Heinemann, 1899), vol. II, Appendix C, among the Holy Sonnets printed from the Westmoreland MS.; “Oh, to vex me, contraries meet in one”. Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/john-donne/xix/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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