How John Donne Showed His Love Essay

, Research Paper

How John Donne Showed his Love

John Donne s poetry has been both ridiculed and praised. One reason

for the ridicule is due to the fact that many people believe his work is vulgar,

and his discussion of sex may seem improper to some people. Even in this

modern age some people may find it a bit offensive. You can imagine what

people thought of it in the sixteenth century. His discussion of sex in this

disgusting manner is more obvious and prevalent in his early work, while he

still had many female acquaintances and before he was settled down with his

wife. Donne eloped with his underage lover Anne More which in itself was a

scandalous event. Her father, Sir George More, objected to their marriage.

Her father was so irritated he had John thrown in jail for marrying a minor

without parental consent. Though the couple went through many hardships

they loved each other very deeply (Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia). The

words in Donne s poetry after the marriage only proved that fact. After their

marriage the words in his poetry showed a more emotional side of Doone, you

could sense the feeling of true love through the words. The way he spoke

about the love he and his wife shared during this time shows it was much

more then just sexual, and the sex was much more meaningful. After the

death of his wife in 1617, Donne was devastated and although he had already

been involved in the church even becoming an ordained minister for the

Church of England (Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia). His relationship with

God became stronger almost as a replacement for his one true love Anne. At

times in his poetry it is even difficult to tell if he is talking about God or his lover.

Whether you think Donne s poetry is perverted or not one can hardly call his

work anything but genius. He is after all considered to be the leader of the

metaphysical school of poets. As Herbert Grierson explains, Metaphysical

Poetry has been inspired by a philosophical conception of the universe and

the r le assigned to the human spirit in a great drama of existence (147-148).

As Theodore Redpath illustrates everywhere in the poems are to be found

instances of rapid and ingenious thinking (223). The wording which he uses

in his poetry can be some what difficult to comprehend at times. Once it is

understood, his emotions and feelings can be felt very strongly throughout the

poetry. One of the most important literary techniques, which can be found

throughout his poetry and he uses quite frequently to inveigh his emotions and

feelings is through the use of metaphors.

One of the most prominent feelings one can find in Donne s poems is

love. Joan Bennett puts it in her article entitled The Poetry of John Donne ,

we can not be certain if it was written for Anne, another women or even God.

(180) Bennett also argues that But the fact remains that such touches of

description are very rare in Donne s poetry. His interests lay elsewhere,

namely in dramatizing, and analyzing, and illustrating by a wealth of analogy

the state, or rather states, of being in love (180) In other words saying that all

of Donne s work may in fact be non-fiction. But to me the poems were

brimming with feeling, feeling which can not be fabricated even by the best of

writers. What John Donne wrote, was for a woman, his love.

In one of his poems entitled The Canonization, it can be thought of as

having a deeper meaning due to the fact that the poem is about two lovers

whose love cannot be understood by anyone else. Nobody believed they

should love each other, and they talk and ridicule them behind their backs.

There love is so great, greater then any other love Donne writes in his poem

all shall approve / Us canonized for love (35-36). In other words he is saying

that everyone will look up to them and long for a love as deep as the love

Donne and his lover share. This is one of the many profound metaphors that

can be found in his poetry. Through his use of these metaphors one can sense

how deeply they love each other, and the words he choose to use in his poetry

only make the poem more effulgent. The metaphors which he uses impact the

reader by allowing him/her to understand strongly where Donne is coming from

and the inner meaning of the poem. In another instance, again in the The

Canonization, Donne does not use just one metaphor for a deeper impression

explaining why others should not object to the love he and his paramour share

and how their love is not affecting anyone in anyway; instead, he uses seven.

Alas, alas, who s injured by my love.

What merchant s ships have my sighs drowned.

Who says my tears have overflowed his ground.

When did my colds forward spring remove.

When did the heats which my veins fill

Add one more to the plaguy bill.

Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still

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