AP Success - AP English Literature: The Broken Heart

The Broken Heart

He is stark mad, whoever says,

That he hath been in love an hour,

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Yet not that love so soon decays,

But that it can ten in less space devour;

Who will believe me, if I swear

That I have had the plague a year?

Who would not laugh at me, if I should say

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I saw a flash of powder burn a day?

Ah, what a trifle is a heart,

If once into love's hands it come!

All other griefs allow a part

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To other griefs, and ask themselves but some;

They come to us, but us love draws;

He swallows us and never chaws;

By him, as by chain'd shot, whole ranks do die;

He is the tyrant pike,1 our hearts the fry.2

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If 'twere not so, what did become

Of my heart when I first saw thee?

I brought a heart into the room,

But from the room I carried none with me;

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If it had gone to thee, I know

Mine would have taught thine heart to show

More pity unto me ; but Love, alas!

At one first blow did shiver3 it as glass.

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Yet nothing can to nothing fall,

Nor any place be empty quite;

Therefore I think my breast hath all

Those pieces still, though they be not unite;

And now, as broken glasses show

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A hundred lesser faces, so

My rags of heart can like, wish, and adore,

But after one such love, can love no more.

—John Donne, 1633

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1 predatory fish

2 small fish, easily devoured

3 shatter