john donne, a poet more of spirituality than of sensuality

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John Donne, a Poetpeople. Thus, Donne brings his philosophy of love before us where there is true love isconcocted from sensuality and spirituality. So, after this discussion, it is unjust to call Donnea worshipper of body as he puts an emphasis on both giving soul and spirituality thedistinction of being superior at the time of love.‘Divine Poems’ are not the poems celebrating the moment of vision of the Ultimate Oneor not about the union of Donne with the Ultimate One, God, but these are poems,marked by an effort of his will, which are produced to examine and discipline his mind.After the death of his wife, Anne Moore, Donne seeks in religion for the sense of securityand completeness that she has been for him. That is why Donne in ‘Holy Sonnet-I’ says;Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?Repair me now, for now mine end doth haste;The ‘old subtle fore’ tempts him butThy Grace may wing me to prevent his art,And thou like Adamant draw mine iron heart.Donne’s another divine poem, ‘Oh My Blacke Soule’, is also a prayer for grace withoutwhich the poet cannot be truly repentant of his sins. Donne, here, brings theologicalparadox to say that only through God’s loving care, if freely given, the sinful human likehim can recognize to seek God’s forgiveness. The poem is thus concerned with the largequestions of free will that have been the center of religious controversy in that period. Asthe free will is brought in focus here, the death is unveiled in the same manner in ‘HolySonnet-X: Death Be Not Proud’. Donne addresses death denying its power. He also makesa list of what comprises the enslavement of death and says;And poppy or charms can make us sleep as wellAnd better than thy stroke;In the same way by the holy sonnet, ‘A Hyme to God the Father’ Donne brings thepossible sins, committed by men like him, before all. In this poem Donne talks about fivekinds of sins. About the first sin, he says;…that sin where I begun,Which was my sin, though it were done before?His second sin is the sin that he commits everyday. Though he tries to resist that sin, hecannot do so. Donne’s contempt about the religion is found when he thinks that enticingpeople to the then religious view is a sin. His fourth sin is the sin;…which I did shunA year or two, but wallow’d in,…And, finally with the utterance of fifth sin Donne conforms the possibility of grace toeveryone, as he thinks the doubt in getting God’s grace and God is itself a sin. The fear ofsin has turned into the sin of fear for Donne though the fear shows the possibility of free willand grace from God. These are not the only things that are matter of concern for Donne.But, Donne is concerned with Judgment Day also in the Holy Sonnets like, ‘This is My Play’sLast Scene’ and ‘At the Round Earth’s Imagin’d Corners’. Between these two poems, inthe first one Donne imagines himself in the deathbed preparing to meet the JudgmentDay but in the later one Donne imagines the Day of Judgment itself. All these arediscussed with a desire to get an intellectual rest woven with a need for the emotionalserenity. In ‘Holy Sonnet-XIV’ Donne cries out to God in the accents of love;Take me to you, imprison mee, for IExcept you’enthrall mee, never shall be free,Nor ever chast, except you ravish mee.This is the last wish of Donne where he seeks for God’s love and pity. Donne in ‘DivinePoems’ shows how one can prepare for the better after life with less sin, true relation,pleasant death and a reward after death. So it can be said that the Divine poems are not101http://www.bdresearchpublications.com/journal/
Dipak Kumar Sarkara good example to accuse Donne for sensuality, rather, these poems are his greatcreation for bringing discipline and sense of morality to all.John Donne in his poetry sets before all an ideal to discuss or analyze which finally helps tofind out what is the best for all though the spirit of the then writers has been a differentone. The first initiation comes from the scientists who try to establish that the earth and theother planets revolve in orbit around the sun. This has been an attempt to displace manfrom the center of creation both literary and metaphorically. As a result the new thoughtcomes in conflict with the traditional teaching of the church. Though the old theory seesthe sight of victory for a time being, it fails with the emergence of the great scientist,Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). Donne in this regard says that ‘new philosophy calls all indoubt’. The second step comes from the writings of Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527),which introduces science presently known as political science. Machiavelli simply ignoresthe fanciful topics, used by medieval theorists, as he tries to analyze the real nature ofpower in the states. As a step he produces ‘The Prince’ in 1513 which deals with the waysby which political power can be won and held without regard to the question of divinepurpose. In chapter-15 he explains clearly that his intension is to present things as theyreally are in fact. It is this scientific spirit that Francis Bacon applauds when he writes, in1623, that we all are indebted to Machiavelli and other writers of that class who openlyand unfeignedly describe what men do and not what men ought to do. Bacon arguesthat soundly based scientific knowledge will lead to technical mastery over the world ofnature. Many of his contemporaries have been less optimistic about his new thought andhave been anxious about the change. The fullest expression of this can be found in manydramatists of that time. William Shakespeare, in particular, has been preoccupied with asense of discrepancy between what men do and what they ought to do’. In ‘Troilus andCressida’ Shakespeare provides a profound illustration of this new skepticism. Donne doesnot offer any new skepticism but he takes the reader to that situation with his brilliantpower of imagery to discover the truth and the right one with the taste of reality. In ‘TheApparition’ Donne creates a situation by means of imagery where a lover threatens tohave revenge as the beloved has rejected him. Here, Donne takes the readers to thebeloved’s room where he, in future though, is going to be present as a ghost. And, therethe beloved has been seen sleeping in the arms of another man. Donne says;Then shall my ghost come to your bed,And thee, feign’d vestal, in worse arms shall see;This lady who has rejected the lover on the issue of losing virginity, is found having pleasureof adultery. So, the stage is set, and the drama is played. Now it is the turn of the readersto decide which the right one is. But, at last Donne takes the lover back keeping theemotion and thought in readers’ mind saying;I had rather thou shouldst painfully repent,Than by my threatenings rest still innocent.It is the desire of Donne in ‘The Flea” too where he sets a dramatic situation of a saucylover appealing for sexual pleasure too his beloved who rejects him. In ‘ A Hymn to GodThe Father’ Donne by the discussion on sins shows the options, which are to follow, andwhich are to be avoided. Sincerity of poet’s feeling can be found in ‘Oh My Blacke Soule’which shows poet’s agony and sense of guilt with his willingness to pray for the debt of sinsthrough repentance and suffering. It is a struggle to make a truth appropriate, which doesnot defeat all poetry but gives us a poetry whose intensity is a moral one. Moreover inpoems like, ‘The Anniversary’, ‘A Valediction: Forbidden Mourning’, ‘The Extasie’ and soon the main character is Donne and thus he makes experiment on himself. Donne onlyshares the options or the outcomes that are to be or can be followed. Donne does notplay the role of a school teacher to lead the innocent school students to the right path byadvice or punishment, rather, he discusses all the sides of a coin and brings the real coinbefore the audience who themselves can choose the right one. In this way, Donne wishesthe active participation of the audience, as the audiences are to decide and take theright way to uphold the morality.It is not that the sexual or bodily apprehensions are totally absent in Donne but the desireto uphold the morality or spirituality dominates him more. The discovery of right andperfect relationship between men and women, soul and God are crucial steps in the102http://www.bdresearchpublications.com/journal/
Page 4 and 5: John Donne, a PoetIn ‘Elegy XII:
Page 8: John Donne, a Poetsearch of the tru

john donne, a poet more of spirituality than of sensuality

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