John Donne: Woman's Constancy

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Now thou has loved me one whole day,

Tomorrow when you leav’st, what wilt thou say?

Wilt thou then antedate some new-made vow?

Or say that now

We are not just those persons which we were?

Or, that oaths made in reverential fear

Of Love, and his wrath, any may forswear?

Or, as true deaths true marriages untie,

So lovers’ contracts, images of those,

Bind but till sleep, death’s image, them unloose?

Or, your own end to justify,

For having purposed change and falsehood, you

Can have no way but falsehood to be true?

Vain lunatic, against these ‘scapes I could

Dispute and conquer, if I would,

Which I abstain to do,

For by tomorrow, I may think so too.

(http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/180618)

Donne’s poems often present arguments made (or, in this case, anticipate and preempt arguments), and his presentation of what passes for love in many contexts is often sarcastic, satirical, and even a bit cynical.

(http://www.enotes.com/topics/womans-constancy)

(video by Pearls of Wisdom)

(John Donne)