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bifocal, 1

image

Albina Street, Berkeley. ca 1980.
scanning error.

The paperback is almost certainly The Complete Poetry of John Donne. With an Introduction, notes, and variants by John T. Shawcross (Anchor Books ACO11, 1967).

Thirty years later, my copy opens most easily to 180. Holy Sonnet —

Oh, to vex me, contraryes meet in one:
Inconstancy unnaturally hath begott
A constant habit; that when I would not
I change in vowes, and in devotione.
As humorous is my contritione
As my prophane Love, and as soone forgott:
As ridlingly distempered, cold and hott,
As praying, as mute; as infinite, as none.
I durst not view heaven yesterday; and to day
In prayers, and flattering speaches I court God:
To morrow I quake with true feare of his rod.
So my devout fitts come and go away
like a fantastique Ague: save that here
Those are my best dayes, when I shake with feare.
 

3 August 2013

tags: accident; contraryes; glasses; inconstancy; John Donne