IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 229 



But we by a love so far refined, 

 That ourselves know not what it is, 

 Inter-assured of the mind, 

 Care less eyes, lips and hands to miss. 



Our two souls therefore, which are one, 

 Though I must go, endure not yet 

 A breach, but an expansion, 

 Like gold to airy thinness beat. 



If they be two, they are two so, 

 As stiff twin compasses are two ; 

 Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show 

 To move, but doth, if th' other do. 



And though it in the centre sit, 

 Yet, when the other far doth roam, 

 It leans and hearkens after it. 

 And grows erect, as that comes home. 



Such wilt thou be to me, who must, 

 Like th' other foot, obliquely run ; 

 Thy firmness makes my circle just, 

 And makes me end where I begun. 



Note. — These verses were given by Donne to his wife 

 when he went abroad in 1611. Walton says : " I beg leave to 

 tell, that I have heard some critics, learned both in languages 

 and poetry, say, that none of the Greek or Latin poets did ever 

 equal them." 



