john donne, a poet more of spirituality than of sensuality

More documents

Recommendations

Info

John Donne, a PoetIn ‘Elegy XII: His Parting from Her’, Donne portrays the picture of a lover who is not in anykind of mechanical love but in real love. As a result, he has mutually enjoyed all the sighs,tears and fevers of love. This love challenges fortune saying;Rend us asunder, thou canst not divideOur bodies so, but that our souls are ty’d,And we can love by letters still and gifts,And thoughts and dreams; Love never wanteth shifts.Rejection of body is very special about this love where he says;Declare yourself base Fortunes enemy,No less by your contempt than constancy:That I may grow enamoured of your mind,When mind own thoughts I there reflected find.This increase of love is thought to be the victory of love against fortune. In the end hedeclares his constancy saying;Take therefore all in this: I love so true,As I will never look for less in you.So, here Donne praises spirituality under a wrapper of love that gives emphasis on sharingfeelings together, united souls and constancy of love. ‘Elegy: On His Mistresse’ is also apoem about the separation of two lovers who are afraid of the outer world. The lover,here, says to;Think it enough for me to have had thy love,Visibly it is a poem concerned about the lonely beloved and about preparing well beingfor beloved in absence of lover. But, Donne’s ‘Elegy: To His Mistresse Going To Bed’appears to be very frank in colloquial sensuality as it brings forth sexual language andinnuendoes;The foe oft-times having the foe in sight,Is tired with standing though they never fight.99This may have been the reason of this poem being banned from the 1633 edition. But itmust be noted that Donne assumes here, as elsewhere, that the language of sexual loveis not a special lovers’ language, rather, it includes any idea that comes to hand whethertaken from ordinary realities of daily life, or from wide range of his reading. Even in such apoem borrowed idea from the theology of Caluin is found. Caluin has argued that menare unable to win salvation through any merit of their own where a few get therighteousness or ‘grace’ of God or Jesus Christ as they are to be saved due to the‘imputed grace’ provided by the God. Here Donne suggests that no man can enjoy thecompany of woman but can only hope that the woman will impute to him her owninfinitely superior qualities and love him for them. Donne calls the activities of theprotagonist and the mistress as something where there is ‘no penance’ but ‘much lessinnocence’. Thus, the elegies clarify the spiritual ideas to bring morality before all in a verycomprehensive way.John Donne’s ‘Songs and Sonnets’ are product of different attitudes according to themood of the moment but in these poems Donne discovers his love philosophy to win overthe argument of superiority of body and soul in love. For, ‘The Flea’ the mood is certainly aromantic one though there is a logical trickery made by Donne. However the target forDonne’s trickery is audience if the dramatic situation, that of a man wining an argumentagainst a woman, is produced for the audience to find their own decision in this regard.Any debate competition can be won by pure and prolific logic but the ethical decision isthrown to every audience. It is surely the audience who is to take decision seeing thedebate. But, the mood in ‘The Good Morrow’ is for one newly in love who rejoices as thehttp://www.bdresearchpublications.com/journal/
Dipak Kumar Sarkar100love is reciprocated. Again, Donne celebrates the joy of true love in ‘The Sunne Rising’.Here, he depicts the picture of Sun being criticized by a lover. The lover is strong due to histrue love and so he has the strength to ‘eclipse and cloud them with a wink’. It is a superbappreciation of a reciprocated true love. But, Donne becomes doubtful in ‘Song: Go andCatch a Falling Star’ about finding a true woman. He says;If thou find’st one, let me know,Such a pilgrimage were sweet,Yet do not, I would not go,Though at next door we might meet,Though she were true, when you met her,And last, till you write your letter,Yet sheWill beFalse, ere I come, to two, or three.In spite of the doubt, shown in this poem, Donne is upset in ‘A Valediction: ForbiddenMourning’ as he has to get separated from his beloved for time being. Here, Donneadmits a new kind of love not a ‘Dull sublunary lovers’ love’ where the soul is the mainessence. He also says;But we by a love, so much refin’dThat ourselves know not what it is,Inter-assured of the mind,Careless, eyes, lips and hands to miss.Besides, the famous conceit of the Compass, used here by Donne, provides theassumption that both are true and the compasses will describe a circle, perfecting theirmovement in the symbol of infinity and eternity. Donne, thus, has proved that the perfectand complete love has no need of outward show. Even the absence of body is not agood reason to destroy a true love, as the main essence of a true love is soul. This view istaken forward in ‘The Extasie’ where Donne makes an addition to this view puttingemphasis on body too. Donne in ‘The Extasie’ says;But O alas, so long, so farOur bodies why do we forbear?They are ours , though they are not we, We areThe intelligences, they the sphere.Nevertheless, it is through a physical meeting that they know each other and for that theyshould be grateful. At this stage none can consider body worthless. So, Donne describes alove where there is a mixture of body and soul. The body, which is inferior, is madevaluable by the union with soul, which is the superior part of any being. About this Donnesays;As our blood labours to begetSpirits, as like souls as it can,Because such fingers need to knitThat subtle knot, which makes us man:This kind of love is worth to be called legend as they, both the lover and beloved, are‘mysterious by this love’ and can ‘die by it, if not live by love’. They and their love will be fitfor sonnets if not for chronicles. By these hymns all men will recognize that they have been‘canonized for love’. Future ages will ‘invoke’ them as lovers;Who did the whole worlds soule contract, and droveInto the glasses of your eyes(So made such mirrors, and such spies,That they did all to you epitomize,)Countries, Townes, Courts: Beg from aboveA patterne of your love!This notion of true love is upheld in ‘The Relique’ also where the lovers are capable ofmaking miracle possible. Due to this, their grave is ‘The Relique’ to be worshipped by thehttp://www.bdresearchpublications.com/journal/
Page 6 and 7: John Donne, a Poetpeople. Thus, Don
Page 8: John Donne, a Poetsearch of the tru

john donne, a poet more of spirituality than of sensuality

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?