The Poetry of Donne by John Donne
"The Poetry of Donne" explores the works of John Donne, a pivotal figure in English literature known for his metaphysical poetry. Emerging into prominence in the early 20th century, Donne's style intricately blends emotion and intellect, often using complex imagery drawn from various fields such as astronomy, philosophy, and alchemy. His poetry defies traditional love conventions, celebrating both the physical and spiritual aspects of love, and incorporates a unique rhythm that mirrors the dramatic qualities of speech. Notably, Donne's poems often address themes of love, death, and faith, reflecting his personal experiences and intellectual inquiries. His "Holy Sonnets" and other religious verses convey a passionate exploration of spirituality and the quest for grace, marked by an evocative use of paradox and vivid imagery. Despite some criticism for being overly elaborate, Donne's work remains celebrated for its wit, beauty, and depth, establishing him as a leading figure among the metaphysical poets. His influence continues to resonate in contemporary poetry, showcasing a blend of emotional sincerity and intellectual rigor.
The Poetry of Donne by John Donne
First published:An Anatomy of the World: The First Anniversary, 1611; Of the Progress of the Soule: The Second Anniversary, 1612; Poems by J.D., 1633
Type of work: Poetry
Critical Evaluation:
It was in the early years of the twentieth century that John Donne was first acknowledged to be a major English poet, and his achievement meaningfully evaluated. Pope “translated” Donne’s SATIRES so thoroughly that they were unrecognizable, and Dryden misleadingly declared that he wrote “nice speculations of Philosophy” and not love poetry at all. The poets of the nineteenth century show, with the exception of Gerard Manley Hopkins, the influence of Milton rather than of the metaphysical poets. The poets of this century have learned much from Donne’s poetic method, by which emotions are expressed by ideas and ideas defined in their emotional context. Ironically, both Donne and Dryden, by writing in what are essentially speech rhythms and not in the current poetic mode revitalized the language of poetry in their generation.
Dryden was in error when he called Donne’s poetry philosophical. Donne was not committed to a particular philosophic system, but he was interested in the fascinating, conflicting, and often disturbing philosophies of his period. The scholastic way of thought, in which systems tended towards synthesis and unity, was giving way to the European scientific renaissance, which was analytical. Ptolemaic astronomy was challenged by Copernicus; Aristotle was challenged by Galileo. What interested Donne, however, was not the ultimate truth of an idea but the fascination of ideas themselves. His images are drawn from whatever belief best expressed the emotion he had to communicate.
Donne was not the first man to write metaphysical poetry. That is, he was not the first poet to describe an emotional state by its intellectual equivalent. However, before Donne wrote, this technique was confined, with the exception of some of Shakespeare’s sonnets and Ben Jonson’s poetry, to the drama and was most frequently found in the plays of Ford, Jonson, and Webster. Also, the Elizabethan tradition of love poetry had already begun to be rivaled by witty and cynical courtly verse. Donne’s own reaction against the Elizabethan tradition was as successful as it was complete.
In some poems, as in “The Indifferent,” Donne celebrated variety in love, and in “Go and Catch a Falling Star” he insisted that no woman remained faithful. As well as in these poems of wit and fancy, where Donne directly mocked literary convention, there are serious love poems in which he is seen to have absorbed and surpassed it. In “A Feaver” the world would not merely be a place of darkness after the lady’s death; it would disintegrate:
But yet thou canst not die, I know;
A further departure from the tradition in which the lady was invariably unattainable is the glory Donne finds in sexual as well as spiritual love. In only two or three poems does he praise platonic relationships, and the poems that describe a relationship in which the beloved woman is not the poet’s mistress are extremely bitter and mocking, as, for example, in “The Apparition.”
The element of hyperbole in these poems is central also in the poems of consummated love and continued devotion, where it is one of the means by which the strength and sincerity of the poet’s passion is conveyed. “The Good-Morrow” begins:
I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
and continues:
For love, all love of other sights con-
At first Donne’s images may amaze rather than delight; however, they communicate effectively the idea through which the emotion is conveyed.
The areas from which Donne’s images were drawn—astronomy, geography, philosophy, and alchemy among others—were those of interest to educated readers of his time. Donne’s images do not evoke general or remembered sensation, but explain the particular one of which he wrote. In “A Valediction: forbidding mourning,” the central idea is that love is not destroyed by death. Donne compares his love to “the trepidation of the spheres” which on earth is not destructive, although the lesser “moving of the earth brings harms and fears.” Further, his love is beyond the ordinary love and includes the soul (love to Donne always involved the entire being); thus separation by death is not a “breach” but an “expansion”—“Like gold to airy thinness beat.” The most striking image in this poem is that of a pair of compasses: the mistress who stays alive is the “fixt foot” around which the dead soul revolves and which, invisibly, circles with it. The poem ends:
Thy firmness drawes my circle just,
The circle in Donne’s poetry is always a symbol for infinity.
The rhythm of Donne’s poetry is as varied and accurate in conveying the sense as the imagery he employs. Its texture is sinewy and often irregular. The speech cadences of the verse are heard in the mind and are essentially dramatic. It is not smooth verse, but it is exact and musical. The opening of “The Sunne Rising” is illustrative of his quick, tense quality:
Busie old foole, unruly Sunne,
Compare these lines with the tranquility and sensuousness of his close:
Thine age askes ease, and since thy
“Aire and Angels” has lines in which the vowel sounds are long and the consonants soft, when love is contemplated, and short-voweled monosyllabic lines which express love’s actuality. The sound in Donne’s poetry not only echoes the sense but in part communicates the emotion.
The power and beauty of Donne’s poetry is its synthesis of emotion, passion, and thought. “The Anniversarie,” which was presumably written to his wife Ann More, is a triumphant expression of confidence in love. In the opening stanza of this poem Donne contrasts the mutability of kings, courts, and even the sun with their love:
Only our love hath us decay;
The discussion of death in the second stanza of this poem is not, here or in other of his lyrics, a morbid preoccupation but, as is true of all Donne’s poetry, an illustration of the all-embracing and inquiring quality of his mind. Death will not destroy love; love will increase in the souls released from the grave. In the third stanza the lovers themselves are kings and thus they will know physical change and decay; however, since the love in their souls after death is inviolate, so are they, while they live. The evolution of this paradoxical idea and the simplicity and directness of the language carry dramatic conviction. The poem ends:
Let us love nobly, and live, and adde
Probably the SONGS AND SONETS are the best known of Donne’s poems, but some of the Elegies and religious verse are of the same quality. In 1615, Donne was ordained an Anglican priest and became Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The poetry that Donne wrote after his ordination was as passionate, as intellectually inquiring, and often as tormented as his love poetry. He spoke of God and the Church in the same terms as he spoke of secular love. For many years before he became a priest he had studied theology and was converted to Protestantism, from the Catholic faith to which he had been born. He discussed the difficulty of finding true religion in his poetry and was apparently almost overwhelmed by the knowledge of his sinfulness.
The “Holy Sonnets” are vibrant and impassioned cries, infused with the knowledge of the need for grace. They, too, are highly personal and dramatic. Number XIV begins:
Batter my heart, three person’d God;
It ends:
Take mee to you, imprison mee, for I
Sometimes the paradoxes in the religious poetry are superb and convincing, but occasionally the ideas are pursued to the point of tedium and a seeming detail is over-elaborated. One of Donne’s most successful devotional poems is “A Hymnne to God the Father,” on sin, fear, and forgiveness, which, with its repeated phrase “Wilt thou forgive,” has a simplicity and humility which is equaled only by the poetry of George Herbert.
Donne was the greatest of the metaphysical poets. In some few of their poems he was equaled by Vaughan and Marvell and in religious poetry by Herbert. But the body of his work is poetry of a quality which, when compared with that of any other of these poets, is unsurpassed. When his images are understood in their function of communicating a state of mind, and his ideas in their power to give expression to emotions, Donne’s poetry is appreciated for its wit, beauty, and perception.