  BEFORE I sigh my last gasp, let me breathe, Great Love, some legacies: Here I bequeathe Mine eyes to Argus, if mine eyes can see; If they be blind, then, Love, I give them thee; My tongue to fame; to embassadors mine ears; To women or the sea, my tears. Thou, Love, hast taught me heretofore, By making me serve her who had twenty more, That I should give to none but such as had too much before. My constancy I to the planets give; My truth to them who at the court do live; My ingenuity and openness To Jesuits; to buffoons my pensiveness; My silence to any who abroad have been; My money to a Capuchin. Thou, Love, taught’st me, by appointing me To love there where no love received can be, Only to give to such as have an incapacity. My faith I give to Roman Catholics; All my good works unto the schismatics Of Amsterdam; my best civility And courtship to a university; My modesty I give to soldiers bare; My patience let gamesters share. Thou, Love, taught’st me, by making me Love her that holds my love disparity, I give my reputation to those Which were my friends; mine industry to foes; To schoolmen I bequeathe my doubtfulness; My sickness to physicians, or excess; To Nature all that I in rhyme have writ; And to my company my wit. Thou, Love, by making me adore Her who begot this love in me before, Taught’st me to make as though I gave, when I do but restore. To him for whom the passing bell next tolls I give my physic-books; my written rolls Of moral counsel I to Bedlam give; My brazen medals unto them which live In want of bread; to them which pass among All foreigners, mine English tongue. Thou, Love, by making me love one Who thinks her friendship a fit portion For younger lovers, dost my gifts thus disproportion. Therefore I’ll give no more, but I’ll undo The world by dying, because love dies too. Then all your beauties will no more be worth Than gold in mines where none doth draw it forth; And all your graces no more use shall have Than a sundial in a grave. Thou, Love, taught’st me, by making me Love her who doth neglect both thee and me, To invent and practise this one way to annihilate all three. John Donne. |
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