John Donne [1572-1631]
Relevant Background
· John Donne’s poetry is classed as ‘Metaphysical Poetry’, an early 17th century style of racy, clever poetry that was ironical, cynical and humorous.
· Metaphysical Poetry dealt with themes of love (platonic, spiritual and overtly sexual), death, time, perfection and humanity’s relationship to God.
· Donne liked to catch readers of his poems by surprise, to shock with a shift of direction, to foil their expectations—thus showing a rebel spirit.
· John Donne wrote poetry in diction (words) and metre (rhythm) modelled on every-day dialogue (colloquial style), and usually organized his poems in the form of urgent arguments. His poems are very logical. His style has many rhetorical devices (persuasive techniques). He seemed to dramatise himself as an energetic speaker in his poems.
· John Donne was highly educated, having started university at twelve. He studied astronomy, alchemy, philosophy, languages, mathematics, map-making, science, medicine, divinity and law. These studies became a source of many farfetched comparisons or conceits in his poetry.
· Donne’s repertoire on the Leaving Certificate course can be divided into two categories: 7 Love or Erotic Poems and 3 Holy or Devotional Sonnets.
· Donne’s love poetry reacted against the traditional rhetoric (poetic techniques) and approach of courtly love. He also rejected the artifice of abjectly worshipping a remote and ornamental mistress sitting on a pedestal of virtue and chastity. His poems presumed success with ladies—not failure. He expected consummation or emotional compliance and did not settle for eloquent lamentation about unrequited love. He also pleaded against gushing displays of sentiment or melodrama. He favoured natural inclination in love.
· Though Donne was into sexual realism, his approach seems witty rather than bawdy (vulgar). Love for Donne was a multi-layered experience.
· During his lifetime, Donne's poems were not published; the early love and satirical poems were circulated to an elite group of ‘fast’ young intellectuals through manuscript copies. Hence their show-off swagger, the self-conscious display of wit. Donne boasted of his ‘masculine persuasive force’.
· Donne’s audience enjoyed his far-fetched wit, his erotic suggestion, his irreverence, his disrespect for poetic convention, his satirical attitude, his clever pleading and his elaborate, learned comparisons
· Donne in his early days was a rake—a young man about town and a ‘great visitor of ladies’ in high society. While a law student he ran a sort of rag week as Master of the Revels for the law society. Thus he was a real character.
· Donne became an adventurer and explorer abroad, seeing naval action at Cadiz and the Azores against the Spanish with Sir Walter Raleigh—hence the abundant nautical and geographical imagery in his poetry.
· Thus, Donne was a flamboyant, fashionable, scholarly and urbane young man, and used his talents in a political way to gain an influential position at Court.
· In 1601–Donne secretly married his boss’s 16 year-old niece, Anne More; a reckless romance that led to the loss of his Courtcareer, jail and then poverty.
· After Donne’s wife died giving birth to their twelfth child, he turned from sensual to theological matters. In 1615 at King James’ request he took Holy Orders and became Dean of St. Paul's, and for his last 15 years a famous preacher, both solemn and eloquent.
· His Devotional Sonnets displayed intense struggling with and challenge to God.
· Donne was reared a Catholic but he became an Anglican. Why? His religiously intense mindset (see the Holy Sonnets) was more suited to the Reformed Church. It is likely he also convertedfor careerreasons and out of a sense of rebellion against the Catholic Church. An individualistic and rebellious spirit is detectable in his later Holy Sonnets as well as in his youthful love Songs.
Themes
Overall, the ten poems on the Leaving cert syllabus constitute an intimate and vivid record of his inner soul. Firstly, the seven love poems reflect his ardent early years; secondly, the religious sonnets reveal his spiritual quest in mature adult life
1. Love is an all encompassing, absorbing and complete experience, a cocoon:
Here upon earth we're kings, and none but we
Can be such kings, nor of such subjects be. [The Anniversary]
Ask for those kings whom thou saw'st yesterday,
And thou shalt hear: "All here in one bed lay."[The Sun Rising]
Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;
This bed thy centre is, these walls, thy sphere. [The Sun Rising]
Who is so safe as we? where none can do
Treason to us, except one of us two. [The Anniversary]
They who one another keep
Alive, ne'er parted be. [Sweetest Love]
But we by a love so much refin'd,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss. [A Valediction]
2. Love can be sensual, an experience of the body rather than the mind, an erotic pleasure or the fulfilment of the libido:
Enter these arms, for since thou thought'st it best,
Not to dream all my dream, let's act the rest. [The Dream]
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two;
And this, alas! is more than we would do. [The Flea]
Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me,
Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee. [The Flea]
Tell me whether both the 'Indias of spice and mine
Be where thou leftst them, or lie here with me. [The Sun Rising]
3. Love is a balance achieved between two souls, through or without the senses:
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 the' other do. [A Valediction]
She is all states, and all princes I [The Sun Rising]
…souls where nothing dwells but love… [The Anniversary]
we—Who prince enough in one another be—
Must leave at last in death these eyes and ears,
Oft fed with true oaths, and with sweet salt tears…
When bodies to their graves, souls from their graves remove. [The Anniversary]
Thou art so true that thoughts of thee suffice
To make dreams truths [The Dream]
I saw thou saw’st my heart,
And knew'st my thoughts, beyond an angel's art, [The Dream]
Inter-assured of the mind…
Our two souls therefore, which are one, [A Valediction]
4. Love can lead to suffering or disillusionment as well as to ecstasy:
…envy's stinging…[Go, And Catch A Falling Star]
No where lives a woman true, and fair …[Go, And Catch A Falling Star]
Two graves must hide thine and my corse [The Anniversary]
When thou sigh'st, thou sigh'st not wind,
But sigh'st my soul away ; [Sweetest Love]
tear-floods… sigh-tempests [A Valediction]
That love is weak where fear's as strong as he [The Dream]
5. The soul’s intense struggle as it demands spiritual help from God:
Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay? Repair me now… [Thou Hast]
Thy grace may wing me …
And thou like adamant draw mine iron heart. [Thou Hast]
Divorce me ,untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthral me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me. [Batter my Heart]
Teach me how to repent; for that's as good
As if thou hadst sealed my pardon with thy blood. [At the Round Earth’s]
Poetic Techniques
Donne has been classified as a Metaphysical poet. What does this mean? Metaphysical Poetry included the following in its poetic style: extreme comparisons (conceits), puns, paradoxes, erudition (learning) frequent obscurity, exaggeration (hyperbole), ingenuity, intellectual vigour, and musical patterns of poetry.
Sound effects
Some of the quotes below have a colour coding in order to partially highlight sound harmony or verbal music as follows:
Alliteration
Assonance
Internal Rhyme or Cross Rhyme or Conventional (end of line) Rhyme
Consonance, including sibilance.
ConsonanceandInternal Rhymemay incorporateAlliteration.
The following are two sample analyses that you should emulate on other poems:
In his use of rhyming couplets like in‘The Flea’, Donne tried to achieve fullness of thought and a freedom and swiftness of movement. Herethe alliteration of‘th’and the echoingsibilancecreate a persuasive fluency of voice and tenderness of approach that is toughened by the solid end of linerhymesin the couplet:
‘Thou know'stthatthis cannot besaid
Asin, norshame, nor lossof maidenhead’ [The Flea]
In his lyrics he varied the stanza and line lengths, making them long or short, simple or elaborate but his variously rhyming stanza forms create a sound that blends his passion and his argumentative voice. Many poems like ‘Sweetest Love’ were set to music. The music of repetition is multi-layered in the following example. Note again how assonance ‘ou’, alliteration‘w’and ‘th’as well as variousrhymingtricks create the seductive voice, the lover’s softness. There are a striking number of further sound echoes for the student to discover here. Observe how the eliding of ‘e’ in ‘sighest’ prolongs the ‘i’ syllable in the word, thus providing a striking onomatopoeia. But note how the end of line rhyming, interwoven in the pattern ababcddc, evokes an authoritative voice and a firm tone that clinches the argument. Note also how the briefest two foot line ‘It cannot be’ is the main argument by negative assertion. By reducing the assertion to a half line it reinforces the meaning that sentimental sighs reduce the life of the speaker through emotional waste.
‘When thousigh'st, thousigh'stnotwind,
Butsigh'stmy soul away
When thouweep'st, unkindlykind,
My life's blood doth decay.
It cannot be
That thoulovest me asthousay'st,
If inthine my lifethouwaste,
Thouart the best of me’. [Sweetest Love]
Rhyme
The thyme is very patterned in both the songs and sonnets. A mixture of interwoven rhyming and couplets is found in the 7 songs (See sample analysis just above for the songs). In the 3 sonnets the rhyme is Petrarchan and according to the following scheme; abba abba cd cd ee. This pattern is traditional and also contains a concluding rhyming couplet that gives a firm sense of an ending to the argument.
Tone
Donne’s tone is usually confident, assertive and calm. It is also characteristically intimate and urgent at times. It is often humorous or mischievous. It may sometimes come across as pleading. Add your own!
Confident:‘Only our love hath no decay’ [The Anniversary]
Assertive:‘And swear, No where Lives a woman true, and fair’ [Go And Catch A Falling Star]
Intimate:‘When thou sigh'st, thou sigh'st not wind,
But sigh'st my soul away’ [Sweetest Love]
Urgent:‘Enter these arms’ [The Dream]
Humorous:‘Thine eyes, and not thy noise wak'd me’ [The Dream]
Mischievous:‘It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee,
…this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead’ [The Flea]
Pleading: ‘O stay, three lives in one flea spare’ [The Flea]
Conceit
This is an elaborate comparison where some concrete object or process is used to illustrate an abstract reality, be it spiritual, emotional or philosophical:
‘Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend’ [Batter my Heart]
‘If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two;
Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the other do’. [A Valediction]
‘But souls where nothing dwells but love
—All other thoughts being inmates’ [The Anniversary]
’She is all states, and all princes, I,
Nothing else is.
Princes do but play us’ [The Sun Rising]
'T were profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love’ [A Valediction]
Analogy:
‘Thus to use myself in jest
By feigned deaths to die’ [Sweetest Love]
‘As virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls, to go…
So let us melt, and make no noise’ [A Valediction]
‘As lightning, or a taper's light,
Thine eyes, and not thy noise wak'd me’ [The Dream]
Pun(dazzling wordplay):
‘Thy beams…I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink’ [The Sun Rising]
‘…tell me whether both th’ Indias of spice and mine
Be where thou left’st them, or lie here with me’ [The Sun Rising]
‘the world's contracted thus’ [The Sun Rising]
‘And grows erect, as that comes home’ [A Valediction]
‘but else would die’ [The Dream]
‘Thine eyes, and not thy noise wak'd me’ [The Dream]
Satire/Irony:
‘Go and catch a falling star…
Teach me to hear mermaids singing…
And find…an honest mind’ [Go And Catch A Falling Star]
‘Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that self-murder added be’ [The Flea]
Paradox(apparent contradiction):
‘Running it never runs from us away’ [The Anniversary]
‘But am betrothed unto your enemy’ [Batter my heart]
‘for I, Except you enthral me, never shall be free’ [Batter my heart]
'Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me’ [Batter my heart]
‘When thou weep'st, unkindly kind’ [Sweetest Love]
Oxymoron(adjacent words that contradict):
‘Things invisible to see…’ [Go And Catch A Falling Star]
‘sweet salt tears’ [The Anniversary]
‘goest to come’ [The Dream]
Hyperbole(exaggeration):
‘No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move’ [A Valediction]
’Batter my heart’ [Batter my heart]
‘except you ravish me’ [Batter my heart]
‘you numberless infinities of souls’ [At the Round Earth’s]
Logic(argument):
‘Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me,
Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee’ [The Flea]
‘'Tis late to ask abundance of thy grace
When we are there; here on this lowly ground
Teach me how to repent; for that's as good
As if thou hadst sealed my pardon with thy blood.’ [At the Round Earth’s]
‘But souls where nothing dwells but love
—All other thoughts being inmates—then shall prove
This or a love increasèd there above’ [The Anniversary]
Erudition(learning):
‘trepidation of the spheres’ [A Valediction]
‘Like gold to airy thinness beat.’ [A Valediction]
‘And thou like adamant draw mine iron heart.’ [Thou Hast]
Ingenuity(self-conscious cleverness):
‘Enter these arms, for since thou thought'st it best,
Not to dream all my dream, let's act the rest.’ [The Dream]
‘Thine eyes, and not thy noise wak'd me’ [The Dream]
‘Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is;
It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee,
…this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead’ [The Flea]
Balance:
‘That love is weak where fear's as strong as he’ [The Dream]
‘Except you enthral me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me’. [Batter my Heart]