"The Apparition" (A Poem)

Printed in 1633, John Donne’s “The Apparition” is a unique ghost story. In the poem, the narrator returns from the dead to torment his mistress who has taken another lover. It’s an interesting companion piece to his “To His Mistress Going to Bed” published nearly forty years prior, where the narrator lures his mistress into bed with praises of her beauty.[1]

When by thy scorn, O murd’ress, I am dead
And that thou think’st thee free
From all solicitation from me,
Then shall my ghost come to thy bed,
And thee, feign’d vestal, in worse arms shall see;
Then thy sick taper will begin to wink,
And he, whose thou art then, being tir’d before,
Will, if thou stir, or pinch to wake him, think
Thou call’st for more,
And in false sleep will from thee shrink;
And then, poor aspen wretch, neglected thou
Bath’d in a cold quicksilver sweat wilt lie
A verier ghost than I.
What I will say, I will not tell thee now,
Lest that preserve thee; and since my love is spent,
I’had rather thou shouldst painfully repent,
Than by my threat’nings rest still innocent.[2]

Works Referenced

Donne, John. “The Apparition.” The Songs and Sonnets of John Donne. 2nd ed. Ed. Theodore Redpath. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983. 106.

Edwards, David. John Donne: Man of Flesh and Spirit. London: Continuum, 2001.
____________________
[1] Edwards, 207.
[2] Donne, 106.