Of the younger John Donne, D.C.L., whose life was dissolute and poetry indecent, perhaps the most pleasing relic is the following poem addressed to his father. It is found in _O'F_ and has been printed by Mr. Warwick Bond: A LETTER. No want of duty did my mind possesse, I through a dearth of words could not expresse That w^{ch} I feare I doe too soone pursue W^{ch} is to pay my duty due to you. For, through the weaknesse of my witt, this way I shall diminish what I hope to pay. And this consider, T'was the sonne of May And not Apollo that did rule the day. Had it bin hee then somthing would have rose; In gratefull verse or else in thankfull prose I would have told you (father) by my hand That I yo^r sonne am prouder of yo^r band Then others of theyr freedome, And to pay Thinke it good service to kneele downe and pray. Yo^r obedient sonne JO. DONNE. PAGES =5, 6=. The three poems by Jonson were printed in the sheets hastily added by the younger Donne in 1650 to the edition of Donne's poems prepared for the press in 1649. See _Text and Canon, &c._ They were taken from Jonson's _Epigrams_ (1616), where they are Nos. xxiii., xciv., and xcvi. Of Donne as a poet Jonson uttered three memorable criticisms in his _Conversations with Drummond_ (ed. Laing, Shakespeare Society, 1842): 'He esteemeth John Done the first poet in the world for some things.' 'That Done for not keeping of accent deserved hanging.' 'That Done himself, for not being understood, would perish.' SONGS AND SONETS. Of all Donne's poems these are the most difficult to date with any definiteness. Jonson, Drummond notes, 'affirmeth Done to have written all his best pieces ere he was twenty-five years old,' that would be before 1598, the year in which Donne became secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton. This harmonizes fairly well with such indications of date as are discoverable in the _Elegies_, poems similar in theme and tone to the _Songs and Sonets_. Mr. Chambers pushes the more daring and cynical of these poems in both these groups further back. He says, 'All Donne's Love-poems ... seem to me to fall into two divisions. There is one, marked by cynicism, ethical laxity and a somewhat deliberate profession of inconstancy. This I believe to be his earliest style, and ascribe the poems marked by it to the period before 1596. About that date he became acquainted with Anne More, whom he evidently loved devotedly and sincerely ever after. And therefore from 1596 onwards I place the second division, with its emphasis of the spiritual, and deep insight into the real things of love.' This is a little too early. Anne More was only twelve years old in 1596, and it is unlikely that she and Donne were known to each other before 1598. Their affection probably ripened later. It almost seems from Donne's letters to his friends as though about 1599 he was proffering at least courtly adoration to some other lady.