Quote#Freedom
Licence my roving hands, and let them go
Quote byJohn Donne · 1572–1631
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Elegies, No. 19, To His Mistress Going to Bed, line 25.
English (original)
Licence my roving hands, and let them go Before, behind, between, above, below. O, my America, my Newfoundland My kingdom, safest when with one man mann'd, My mine of precious stones, my empery; How am I blest in thus discovering thee! To enter in these bonds, is to be free; Then, where my hand is set, my soul shall be.
— John Donne
More from John Donne
So, of a lone unhaunted place possess’d, Did this soul’s second inn, built by the guest, This living buried man, this quiet mandrake, rest.
Great Destiny, the commissary of God.
And seeing the snail, which everywhere doth roam, Carrying his own house still, still is at home, Follow (for he is easy paced) this snail, Be thine own palace, or the world’s thy gaol.
Sir, more than kisses, letters mingle souls; For, thus friends absent speak.
I sing the progress of a deathless soul.
Nature’s great masterpiece, an elephant, The only harmless great thing.