Donne: Poems #Summary

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Donne is firmly within the camp of
metaphysical poets--those poets for whom
considerations of the spiritual world were
paramount compared to all earthly
considerations. While a master of
metaphysical expression, Donne achieves
this mastery by refusing to deny the place
of the physical world and its passions. He
often begins with a seemingly carnal
image only to turn it into an argument for
the supremacy of God and the immortality
of the soul.
Donne's poetry falls most simply into two
categories: those works composed and
published prior to his entering the
ministry, and those which follow his
taking up the call to serve God. While
many of his later poems are certainly
more in the metaphysical vein that Donne
has become famous for, it is nonetheless
a matter of little debate that his work has
a certain continuity. There is no sharp
division of style or poetic ability between
the two phases of Donne's literary career.
Instead, it is only the emphasis of subject
matter that changes. Donne is ever
concerned with matters of the heart, be
they between a man and a woman or
between a man and his Creator. It is in his
later poetry that Donne most often fuses
the two into a seemingly paradoxical
combination of physical and spiritual that
gives light to our understanding of both.
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"Lovers' Infiniteness" :
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The poet complains
that he does not yet have all of his
beloveds love, despite using all of his
resources to woo her. She should not
leave some love for others, nor should she
leave herself open to wooing by others
later. Yet, he also wants her to keep some
of her love for him in reserve so that they
can enjoy a constantly growing
relationship.
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"Litanie" :
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This poem follows the Order of
Mass in that it mimics the order in which
the congregation asks the various divine
and holy entities to pray for them: the
Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost, the
Trinity, the Virgin Mary, the angels, the
patriarchs, the prophets, the apostles, the
martyrs, the confessors, the virgins, and
the doctors. The poet prays to be free
from anxiety, temptation, vanity,
misdirection, sin and, ultimately, death.
~~~~~~~~~
"The Sunne Rising" :
~~~~~~~~
The poet asks the sun
why it is shining in and disturbing him and
his lover in bed. The sun should go away
and do other things rather than disturb
them, like wake up ants or rush late
schoolboys to start their day. Lovers
should be permitted to make their own
time as they see fit. After all, sunbeams
are nothing compared to the power of
love, and everything the sun might see
around the world pales in comparison to
the beloveds beauty, which encompasses
it all. The bedroom is the whole world.
~~~~~~~
"Song" ("Goe, and catche a falling
starre") :
~~~~~~~~
The reader is told to do
impossible things like catch a meteor or
find a "true and fair" woman after a
lifetime of travels. The poet wishes he
could go and see such a woman if she
existed, but he knows that she would turn
false by the time he got there.
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"The Indifferent" :
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The poet will willingly
have an affair with any woman, so long as
she isnt trying to be faithful to her
current lover or to him. Dont plan on a
man being faithful to you either, the poet
tells the woman he is now wooing; just
about everyone plays around. Dont bind a
man; he will stray. Even Venus
investigated the issue and verified that
virtually everyone is false.
~~~~~~~~~
Death Be Not Proud"
~~~~~~~
(Holy Sonnet 10)
presents an argument against the power
of death. Addressing Death as a person,
the speaker warns Death against pride in
his power. Such power is merely an
illusion, and the end Death thinks it brings
to men and women is in fact a rest from
world-weariness for its alleged victims.
The poet criticizes Death as a slave to
other forces: fate, chance, kings, and
desperate men. Death is not in control, for
a variety of other powers exercise their
volition in taking lives. Even in the rest it
brings, Death is inferior to drugs. Finally,
the speaker predicts the end of Death
itself, stating Death, thou shalt die.
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"The Anniversary" :
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A year has passed, and
everything has grown older, drawing closer
to their end. In contrast, the one ageless
thing is the unchanging love the poet
shares with his lover. Although their
bodies will be in separate graves when
they die, their eternal souls will be
reunited when they are resurrected. For
now, the two are kings in their world of
love, secure in their faithfulness, and he
hopes that they will be together for 60
anniversaries.
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Good Friday, 1613, Riding Westward :
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On
the day that Christians remember the
crucifixion of Jesus , the poet is traveling
west but thinks of the Holy Land to the
east. He can hardly imagine seeing Jesus
die on the cross with his own eyes, so he
turns his thoughts to Mary for a moment.
Traveling west, his back faces east, and
he calls upon divine mercy and grace to
cleanse him of his sin so that he feels
able to turn his face back towards God.
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Sweetest love, I do not go :
~~~~~~~
The poet
tells his beloved that he is not leaving
because he is tired of the relationship
instead, he must go as a duty. After all,
the sun departs each night but returns
every morning. As the beloved sighs and
cries, the lover complains that if he is
really within her, she is the one letting him
go because he is part of her tears and
breath. He asks her not to fear any evil
that may befall him while he is gone, and
besides, they keep each other alive in
their hearts and therefore are never truly
parted.
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"Meditation 17" :
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Donne is approaching
death. Hearing a church bell signifying a
funeral, he observes that every death
diminishes the large fabric of humanity.
We are all in this world together, and we
ought to use the suffering of others to
learn how to live better so that we are
better prepared for our own death, which
is merely a translation to another world
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"The Bait"
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: The speaker addresses his
beloved as one whose beauty naturally
attracts others, like a fisherman who
attracts fish while hardly even trying.
While others may catch fish in slimy,
hurtful, deceiving ways, the beloved is her
own bait.
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The Apparition :
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The beloved has
scorned the poet, and he tells her that
once he is dead, he will visit her bed later
as a ghost. She will ask her living lover for
help, but he will turn away, leaving her
alone to fear him. He urges her to repent
now rather than face his wrath later.
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"The Canonization" :
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The poet demands
that some complainer leave him alone to
love. The complainer should turn his
attention elsewhere, and nobody is hurt by
the love. The poet and his lover take their
own chances together; they are unified in
their love. On the other hand, their love is
a beautiful example for the world that will
be immortalized, canonized, a pattern for
all other love in the world.
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"The Broken Heart" :
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The speaker says
that it is ludicrous to argue that someone
cant fall out of love quickly, although he
himself has felt the plague of a broken
heart for a year. A broken heart is an
overwhelming grief. In a single blow, his
beloved shattered his heart. Now, like a
broken mirror, the many pieces of his
heart are too weak for love again.
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"A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning"
~~~~~~~~
The
beloved should not openly mourn being
separated from the poet. Their love is
spiritual, like the legs of a compass that
are joined together at the top even if one
moves around while the other stays in the
center. She should remain firm and not
stray so that he can return home to find
her again.
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Hymn to God, My God, in My Sickness :
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The speaker faces the possibility of his
own death by focusing on his preparation
for Heaven. He must tune himself in order
to become Gods musical instrument. Or,
he is like a map, where the westernmost
and easternmost points are the same and
his death will be transfigured into
resurrection.
Holy Sonnet 14 ("Batter my heart") : The
speaker asks God to intensify the effort to
restore the speakers soul. God should
overthrow him like a besieged town. He
asks God to break the knots holding him
back, imprisoning him in order to free him,
and taking him by force in order to purify
him.
Holy Sonnet 11 ("Spit in my face") : While
heretics might scourge the poet as they
did Jesus due to his faith, the poet is far
from blameless. He is re-crucifying Jesus
daily because of his sins. While other
kings enact mercy by pardoning criminals,
Jesus actually bore the punishment,
making himself suffer as a human so as
to redeem sinful humanity.