Although thy hand and faith, and good works too, <br />Have seal'd thy love which nothing should undo, <br />Yea though thou fall back, that apostasy <br />Confirm thy love; yet much, much I fear thee. <br />Women are like the Arts, forc'd unto none, <br />Open to'all searchers, unpriz'd, if unknown. <br />If I have caught a bird, and let him fly, <br />Another fouler using these means, as I, <br />May catch the same bird; and, as these things be, <br />Women are made for men, not him, nor me. <br />Foxes and goats; all beasts change when they please, <br />Shall women, more hot, wily, wild then these, <br />Be bound to one man, and did Nature then <br />Idly make them apter to endure than men? <br />They are our clogges, not their owne; if a man be <br />Chain'd to a galley, yet the galley is free; <br />Who hath a plow-land, casts all his seed corn there, <br />And yet allows his ground more corn should bear; <br />Though Danuby into the sea must flow, <br />The sea receives the Rhene, Volga, and Po. <br />By nature, which gave it, this liberty <br />Thou lov'st, but Oh! canst thou love it and me? <br />Likeness glues love: Then if so thou do, <br />To make us like and love, must I change too? <br />More than thy hate, I hate it, rather let me <br />Allow her change, then change as oft as she, <br />And so not teach, but force my opinion <br />To love not any one, nor every one. <br />To live in one land is captivity, <br />To run all countries, a wild roguery; <br />Waters stink soon, if in one place they bide, <br />And in the vast sea are worse putrified: <br />But when they kiss one bank, and leaving this <br />Never look back, but the next bank do kiss, <br />Then are they purest; Change is the nursery <br />Of music, joy, life, and eternity.<br /><br />John Donne<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/elegy-iii-change/
