ELEGIE XX.
Loves Warre.
TILL I have peace with thee, warr other men,
And when I have peace, can I leave thee then?
All other Warrs are scrupulous; Only thou
O fayr free Citty, maist thyselfe allowe
5To any one: In Flanders, who can tell
Whether the Master presse; or men rebell?
Only we know, that which all Ideots say,
They beare most blows which come to part the fray.
France in her lunatique giddines did hate
10Ever our men, yea and our God of late;
Yet she relyes upon our Angels well,
Which nere returne; no more then they which fell.
Sick Ireland is with a strange warr possest
Like to an Ague; now raging, now at rest;
15Which time will cure: yet it must doe her good
If she were purg'd, and her head vayne let blood.
And Midas joyes our Spanish journeys give,
We touch all gold, but find no food to live.
And I should be in the hott parching clyme,
20To dust and ashes turn'd before my time.
To mew me in a Ship, is to inthrall
Mee in a prison, that weare like to fall;
Or in a Cloyster; save that there men dwell
In a calme heaven, here in a swaggering hell.
25Long voyages are long consumptions,
And ships are carts for executions.
Yea they are Deaths; Is't not all one to flye
Into an other World, as t'is to dye?
Here let mee warr; in these armes lett mee lye;
30Here lett mee parlee, batter, bleede, and dye.
Thyne armes imprison me, and myne armes thee;
Thy hart thy ransome is; take myne for mee.
Other men war that they their rest may gayne;
But wee will rest that wee may fight agayne.
35Those warrs the ignorant, these th'experienc'd love,
There wee are alwayes under, here above.
There Engins farr off breed a just true feare,
Neere thrusts, pikes, stabs, yea bullets hurt not here.
There lyes are wrongs; here safe uprightly lye;
40There men kill men, we'will make one by and by.
Thou nothing; I not halfe so much shall do
In these Warrs, as they may which from us two
Shall spring. Thousands wee see which travaile not
To warrs; But stay swords, armes, and shott
45To make at home; And shall not I do then
More glorious service, staying to make men?
Elegy XX &c. Ed: First published in F.G. Waldron's A Collection of Miscellaneous Poetry, 1802, from a MS. dated 1625; then by Sir J. Simeon in his Philobiblon Society volume of 1856. It is included among Donne's Elegies in A18, A25, B, Cy, D, H49, JC, L74, Lec, N, O'F, P, S, S96, TCC, TCD, W. In B it has the title Making of Men. The present text is based on W
7 all A18, B, Cy, D, H49, L74, Lec, O'F, S, S96, TC, W: most JC, Chambers
8 They beare most blows which (or that) A18, B, D, H49, JC, L74, Lec, S, S96, TC, W: They must bear blows, which Chambers
9 giddiness] guidings Sim: giddinge Wald
11 well,] well W
13 a strange] straying Sim
16 head] dead Sim
19 the A18, B, Cy, D, H49, N, S, S96, TC, W: that Chambers, A25, JC, L74, O'F
24 swaggering] swaying Chambers
25 consumptions,] consumptions W: line omitted, Wald
29 lye] spelt ly
W: and so 30 dy
33 gayne;] gayne W
37 There] These Sim
and, that, with, which] contracted throughout, W