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May the next thing thou stoop'st to reach, contain |
Poyson, whose nimble fume rot thy moist brain: |
Or libels, or some interdicted thing, |
Which negligently kept, thy ruine bring. |
Lust-bred diseases rot thee; and dwell with thee |
Itching desire, and no abilitie. |
May all the evills that gold ever wrought; |
All mischief that all devils ever thought: |
Want after plenty: poor and gouty age: |
The plague of travailers: love and marriage |
Afflict thee; and that thy lives last moment, |
May thy swoln sins themselves to thee present. |
But I forgive: repent thou honest man: |
Gold is restorative, restore it than: |
But if that from it thou beest loath to part, |
Because 'tis cordial, would 'twere at thy heart. |
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[Transcriptions are not provided for noncanonical poems, elegies on Donne by other authors, or prose compositions] |