Lyric Poem · Love

The Prohibition

by John Donne

Reading room

1Take heed of loving me;

2At least remember I forbade it thee;

3Not that I shall repair my unthrifty waste

4Of breath and blood, upon thy sighs and tears,

5By being to thee then what to me thou wast;

6But so great joy our life at once outwears;

7Then, lest thy love by my death frustrate be,

8If thou love me, take heed of loving me.

9Take heed of hating me,

10Or too much triumph in the victory;

11Not that I shall be mine own officer,

12And hate with hate again retaliate;

13But thou wilt lose the style of conqueror

14If I, thy conquest, perish by thy hate;

15Then, lest my being nothing lessen thee,

16If thou hate me, take heed of hating me.

17Yet, love and hate me too;

18So, these extremes shall neither's office do;

19Love me, that I may die the gentler way;

20Hate me, because thy love is too great for me;

21Or let these two themselves, not me, decay;

22So shall I live thy stage, not triumph be;

23Lest thou thy love and hate and me undo,

24To let me live, O love and hate me too.

Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.

Tip: click any line number to copy a ready-made citation for that line.

“The Prohibition” by John Donne — quilloak.com/poems/the-prohibition

Quick facts

Poem: The Prohibition
Poet: John Donne
Length: 24 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Love, Death & Loss, Sad

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape: 24 lines · 3 octaves
Line length: Mostly 10-syllable lines (pentameter length).

The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake

Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record: John Donne1572–1631
Source record: PoetryDBThe Prohibition by john-donne, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 181ebd6d6b3439db…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

Jurisdiction-specific, never a worldwide claimRights policy Report a text or rights issue

Lyric Poem Love Death & Loss Sad

Keep reading

She Walks in Beauty

Lord Byron · 1814

She walks in beauty, like the nightOf cloudless climes and starry skies;And all that's best of dark and bright

18 lines · lyric

Love's Philosophy

Percy Bysshe Shelley · 1819

The fountains mingle with the riverAnd the rivers with the ocean,The winds of heaven mix for ever

16 lines · lyric

When You Are Old

W. B. Yeats · 1893

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,And nodding by the fire, take down this book,And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

12 lines · lyric

More love poems →