English poem
Holy Sonnet XII: Why Are We By All Creatures Waited On?
by John Donne
Why are we by all creatures waited on? Why do the prodigal elements supply Life and food to me, being more pure than I, Simple, and further from corruption? Why brook'st thou, ignorant horse, subjection? Why dost thou, bull, and bore so seelily, Dissemble weakness, and by one man's stroke die, Whose whole kind you might swallow and feed upon? Weaker I am, woe is me, and worse than you, You have not sinned, nor need be timorous. But wonder at a greater wonder, for to us Created nature doth these things subdue, But their Creator, whom sin nor nature tied, For us, His creatures, and His foes, hath died.
More by John Donne
- Holy Sonnet VII: At The Round Earth's Imagined Corners Blow
- Holy Sonnet VIII: If Faithful Souls Be Alike Glorified
- Holy Sonnet X: Death Be Not Proud
- Holy Sonnet XI: Spit In My Face You Jews, And Pierce My Side
- Holy Sonnet XIII: What If This Present Were The World's Last Night?
- Holy Sonnet XIX: Oh, To Vex Me, Contraries Meet In One
- Holy Sonnet XV: Wilt Thou Love God, As He Thee? Then Digest
- Holy Sonnet XVI: Father, Part Of His Double Interest