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About this quote

What does it mean?
Love turned the speaker into something new, creating life from death and absence.
In plain terms
Love rebuilt me from death.
What can you take from it?
Love creates from nothingness.

Where it applies

  • spiritual growth
  • relationships
  • poetry

Putting it to work

  • finding renewal
  • accepting transformation

Questions to consider

  • How does love change us?
  • Can loss create life?

Another view

It assumes all love is transformative.

More from John Donne

  1. The world's whole sap is sunk: The general balm th' hydroptic earth hath drunk, Whither, as to the bed's-feet, life is shrunk, Dead and interred; yet all these…

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  2. Come live with me, and be my love, And we will some new pleasures prove Of golden sands, and crystal brooks, With silken lines, and silver hooks.

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  3. Send home my long strayed eyes to me, Which (Oh) too long have dwelt on thee.

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