Note 16 — POEMS
Reading edition
There is no more difficult poem to understand or to assign to or from Donne than the long letter headed To the Countesse of Huntington, 13 on the list, which, for the time being, I have placed in the Appendix B. On internal grounds there is more to be said for ascribing it to Donne than any other single poem in this collection. Nevertheless I have resolved to let it stand, that it may challenge the attention it deserves.16 The reasons which led me to doubt Donne's authorship are these: