Love’s Alchemy
John Donne * Track #56 On Poems of John Donne
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Album Poems of John Donne
- #1A Burnt Ship
John Donne
- #2A dialogue between Sir Henry Wootton and Mr. Donne
John Donne
- #3A Fever
John Donne
- #4A Hymn To Christ At The Author’s Last Going Into Germany
John Donne
- #5A Hymn To God The Father
John Donne
- #6A Jet Ring Sent
John Donne
- #7A Lame Beggar
John Donne
- #8A Lecture Upon The Shadow
John Donne
- #9A Licentious Person
John Donne
- #10A Litany
John Donne
- #11A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy’s Day, Being The Shortest Day
John Donne
- #12A Self Accuser
John Donne
- #13A Sheaf Of Snakes Used Heretofore To Be My Seal, The Crest Of Our Poor Family
John Donne
- #14A Valediction Of Weeping
John Donne
- #15An Anatomy Of The World...
John Donne
- #16An Obscure Writer
John Donne
- #17Antiquary
John Donne
- #18At the round earth’s imagin’d corners
John Donne
- #19Break of Day
John Donne
- #20Community
John Donne
- #21Confined Love
John Donne
- #22Daybreak
John Donne
- #23Disinherited
John Donne
- #24Eclogue
John Donne
- #25Elegy I: Jealousy
John Donne
- #26Elegy II: The Anagram
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- #27Elegy III: Change
John Donne
- #28Elegy IV: The Perfume
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- #29Elegy V: His Picture
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- #30Elegy VI
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- #31Elegy VII
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- #32Elegy VIII: The Comparison
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- #33Elegy IX: The Autumnal
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- #34Elegy X: The Dream
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- #35Elegy XII
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- #36Elegy XIII: His Parting From Her
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- #37Elegy XIV: Julia
John Donne
- #38Elegy XVII: On His Mistress
John Donne
- #39Elegy XVI: The Expostulation
John Donne
- #40Elegy XVIII: Love’s Progress
John Donne
- #41Elegy XX (Alternate) Love’s War
John Donne
- #42Elegy:The End of Funeral Elegies
John Donne
- #43ElegyXI: The Bracelet
John Donne
- #44Epithalamion Made At Lincoln’s Inn
John Donne
- #45Fall of a Wall
John Donne
- #46Farewell to Love
John Donne
- #47For whom the Bell Tolls
John Donne
- #48From ‘The Cross’
John Donne
- #49Hero and Leander
John Donne & John Donne
- #50Holy Sonnet IX: If Poisonous Minerals, And If That Tree
John Donne
- #51Holy Sonnet VII: At the Round Earth’s
John Donne
- #52HOLY SONNETS: Since she whom I lov’d hath paid her last debt
John Donne
- #53Hym To God, My God In My Sickness
John Donne
- #54Klockius
John Donne
- #55La Corona
John Donne
- #56Love’s Alchemy
John Donne
- #57Love’s Deity
John Donne
- #58Love’s Diet
John Donne
- #59Love’s Exchange
John Donne
- #60Love’s Growth
John Donne
- #61Love’s Infiniteness
John Donne
- #62Love’s Usury
John Donne
- #63Mercurius Gallo-Belgicus
John Donne
- #64Negative Love
John Donne
- #65Niobe
John Donne
- #66Ode
John Donne
- #67On the Lady Elizabeth, and Count Palatine Being Married on St. Valentine’s Day
John Donne
- #68On The Progress Of The Soul...
John Donne
- #69The Broken Heart
John Donne
- #70Phryne
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- #71Pyramus and Thisbe
John Donne
- #72Raderus
John Donne
- #73Ralphius
John Donne
- #74Ressurection
John Donne
- #75Resurrection, imperfect
John Donne
- #76Satire I
John Donne
- #77Satire II
John Donne
- #78Satire III
John Donne
- #79Satire IV
John Donne
- #80Satire V
John Donne
- #81Self-Love
John Donne
- #82Sonnet Cycle For Lady Magdalen
John Donne
- #83Sweetest Love, I do not go
John Donne
- #84That Time and Absence proves Rather helps than hurts to loves
John Donne
- #85The Annunciation And Passion
John Donne
- #86The Apparition
John Donne
- #87The Blossom
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- #88The Will
John Donne
- #89The Calm
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- #90The Computation
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- #91The Curse
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- #92The Damp
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- #93The Dissolution
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- #94
The EcstasyJohn Donne
- #95The Expiration
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- #96The Funeral
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- #97The Harbinger
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- #98The Indifferent
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- #99The Legacy
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- #100The Message
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- #101The Paradox
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- #102The Primrose
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- #103The Prohibition
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- #104The Relic
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- #105The Token
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- #106The Triple Fool
John Donne
- #107The Undertaking
John Donne
- #108Witchcraft By A Picture
John Donne
- #109To George Herbert,
John Donne
- #110TO MR. I. P.
John Donne
- #111To Mr. Rowland Woodward
John Donne
- #112TO Mr. Samuel Brooke
John Donne
- #113To Mr. Tilman After He Had Taken Orders
John Donne
- #114TO Mr.I.L.
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- #115TO Mr.T.W.
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- #116To Sir Henry Goodyere
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- #117To Sir Henry Wotton At His Going Ambassador To Venice
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- #118To Sir Henry Wotton II
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- #119To The Countess Of Bedford I
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- #120To The Countess Of Bedford II
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- #121To The Earl Of Doncaster
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- #122To The Lady Magdalen Herbert, Of St. Mary Magdalen
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- #123To The Praise Of The Dead And The Anatomy
John Donne
- #124Translated Out Of Gazaeus,
John Donne
- #125Twickenham Garden
John Donne
- #126Upon The Translation Of The Psalms By Sir Philip Sidney And The Countess Of Pembroke, His Sister
John Donne
- #127Valediction to his Book
John Donne
Love's Alchemy by John Donne
Performed by
John DonneAbout
This poem uses medieval science as an analogy to love, drawing a parallel between the two.
Alchemy was a ‘science’ which aimed to find the Elixir of life. Its practitioners hoped to find a mysterious substance that could cure disease and prolong life, and turn base metal into gold. The Alchemists, d...
Love’s Alchemy Annotated
Some that have deeper digg'd love's mine than I,
Say, where his centric happiness doth lie;
I have lov'd, and got, and told,
But should I love, get, tell, till I were old,
I should not find that hidden mystery.
Oh, 'tis imposture all!
And as no chemic yet th'elixir got,
But glorifies his pregnant pot
If by the way to him befall
Some odoriferous thing, or medicinal,
So, lovers dream a rich and long delight,
But get a winter-seeming summer's night.
Our ease, our thrift, our honour, and our day,
Shall we for this vain bubble's shadow pay?
Ends love in this, that my man
Can be as happy'as I can, if he can
Endure the short scorn of a bridegroom's play?
That loving wretch that swears
'Tis not the bodies marry, but the minds,
Which he in her angelic finds,
Would swear as justly that he hears,
In that day's rude hoarse minstrelsy, the spheres.
Hope not for mind in women; at their best
Sweetness and wit, they'are but mummy, possess'd.