Poem

The Canonization

by John Donne

For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love ;
Or chide my palsy, or my gout ;
My five gray hairs, or ruin'd fortune flout ;
With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve ;
Take you a course, get you a place,
Observe his Honour, or his Grace ;
Or the king's real, or his stamp'd face
Contemplate ; what you will, approve,
So you will let me love.

Alas ! alas ! who's injured by my love?
What merchant's ships have my sighs drown'd?
Who says my tears have overflow'd his ground?
When did my colds a forward spring remove?
When did the heats which my veins fill
Add one more to the plaguy bill?
Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still
Litigious men, which quarrels move,
Though she and I do love.

Call's what you will, we are made such by love ;
Call her one, me another fly,
We're tapers too, and at our own cost die,
And we in us find th' eagle and the dove.
The phoenix riddle hath more wit
By us ; we two being one, are it ;
So, to one neutral thing both sexes fit.
We die and rise the same, and prove
Mysterious by this love.

We can die by it, if not live by love,
And if unfit for tomb or hearse
Our legend be, it will be fit for verse ;
And if no piece of chronicle we prove,
We'll build in sonnets pretty rooms ;
As well a well-wrought urn becomes
The greatest ashes, as half-acre tombs,
And by these hymns, all shall approve
Us canonized for love ;

And thus invoke us, "You, whom reverend love
Made one another's hermitage ;
You, to whom love was peace, that now is rage ;
Who did the whole world's soul contract, and drove
Into the glasses of your eyes ;
So made such mirrors, and such spies,
That they did all to you epitomize—
Countries, towns, courts beg from above
A pattern of your love."

My English professor in college would scoff at the description at W*ikipedia, but it's a blunt analysis. I never thought I would enjoy deciphering poetry. Life has a funny way of turning the tables, doesn't it?

And, at this point I am reading your mind..."what is she thinking posting poetry when we want a glimpse into the house?!" Ha! Here's a little tidbit...

Wait for it.

You guessed it! We picked out kitchen cabinetry several weeks ago and it's scheduled to arrive the first week of May. Yikes, that's soon. My husbands folks were down all last week to help us with drywalling, etc. I can't believe we are to the point where we are sanding and priming! The end is in sight! Now, if we can all make it through this last month we're in the clear. That's a big I.F. Reinforcement will arrive in the form of my mom in a couple of weeks. "I think we can, I think we can, I think we can..."