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LINES ON A PORTRAIT OF DONNE IN
HIS EIGHTEENTH YEAR.

1635.




[Engraved under William Marshall's Portrait of Donne, "Anno Domini. 1591.
Aetatis suae 18," prefixed to the second edition of Donne's Poems, 1635.]



_On a Portrait of_ DONNE _taken in his eighteenth year._

This was for youth, Strength, Mirth, and wit that Time
Most count their golden Age; but t'was not thine.
Thine was thy later yeares, so much refind
From youths Drosse, Mirth & wit; as thy pure mind
Thought (like the Angels) nothing but the Praise
Of thy Creator, in those last, best Dayes.
Witnes this Booke, (thy Embleme) which begins
With Love; but endes, with Sighes, & Teares for sin's.