Discuss John Donne as a METAPHYSICAL POET of love as reflected in his poetry. | BRITISH POETRY | MEG-1 | BLOCK - 3

 

 John Donne (22 January, 1572-31 March, 1631) was an English scholar, poet and soldier. He was Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. He is considered the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His poetical works are noted for their metaphorical and sensual style and include sonnets, love poems, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires. He is also known for sermons.

Love-lyrics of Donne

                   Donne's reputation as a love poet rests on his fifty-five lyrics which were written at different periods of his life, but were published for the first time in 1633 in one volume called Songs and Sonnets. A few of them can be linked to actual persons and events of his life, but the majority are expressions of intense emotional activity in the poet's mind. They are literary experiments, explorations of love-relationship from the man's point of view.

 

Metaphysical poetry was a kind of revolt against the excessive sentimentalism and romanticism of the 16th century poetry. It disproved of the sugared melody and romantic writing.

 

                                    Even though Donne belongs to the late 16th and early 17th century, his love-lyrics are unlike the Elizabethan love lyrics of Shakespeare, Spenser and Sidney, which employed courtly form of address and expressed the values of the Courtly world. Donne employs a simple style and a colloquial diction and presents love in a context other than that of the court.

 

The term "metaphysical" was originally coined by Samuel Johnson in the 18th century to describe this particular group of poets.

 

Literally ‘Meta’ means “beyond” and “physics” means “physical nature”. It was John Dryden who first used the word, “Metaphysical” in connection with Donne’s poetry and wrote, Donne affects the “Metaphysics” and Dr. Jonson confirmed the judgment of Dryden.

 

 

John Donne, the pioneer of this metaphysical school of poetry, and his contemporaries like Andrew Marvell, Henry Vaughan, George Herbert and Richard Crashaw importantly contributed to this new poetic field of metaphysical poetry. 

In this regard, Grierson rightly describes metaphysical poetry as 

"poetry inspired by a philosophical concept of the universe and the role assigned to human spirit in the great drama of existence."

The metaphysical poets incorporated a wide range of knowledge and imagery into their work, drawing from fields such as law, alchemy, philosophy, astronomy, and more. This incorporation of diverse learning into poetry distinguishes them from other poetic schools of the time.

 

The chief characteristic of Donne's metaphysical poetry may be summarized as follows:

 

1. It is complexes and difficult. Most varied concepts are brought together.

2. It is intellectual in tone. There is an analysis of the most delicate shades of psychological experience.

3. There is a fusion of emotion and intellect, as there is intellectual analysis of emotions personally, experienced by the poet.

4. It is full of conceits which are learned, intellectual and over-elaborated.

5. It is argumentative. There is Cubic evolution of thought as Donne advanced arguments, after arguments to prove

his points. He is often like a lawyer choosing the fittest arguments for the case.

6. Originality is archived by the use of a new vocabulary drawn from the world of trade and commerce, the art and the science.

7. In order to arrest attention of tone a poem begins abruptly and colloquially, and unusual rethemes are used unusual compound words are also used for the same purpose.

8. It is often dramatic in form. The blossom is the form of a dialogue between the poet and his heart which is treated as a separate entity, has been well said his poetry presents a drama of ideas. His lyrics are dramatic. A poem of Donne's is a piece of drama.

 

A metaphysical poet of love as reflected in his poetry:

 

The Good Morrow is a quintessential example of Donne's metaphysical approach to love. The poem opens with a speaker addressing his beloved, expressing a sense of awakening to true love. Donne employs rich imagery and metaphors drawn from exploration and discovery to convey the idea that love transcends physicality and unites souls on a profound level. The poem suggests that the speaker's previous experiences were mere child's play compared to the depth and intensity of the love he now shares with his beloved. Through the exploration of love as a transformative force, Donne emphasizes the spiritual dimension of human relationships, echoing the metaphysical preoccupation with transcendent truths.

 

In A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, Donne explores the nature of love and separation with intricate conceits and metaphors.

"As virtuous men passe mildly' away,

And whisper to their soules, to go,

 Whilst some of their sad friends doe say,

The breath goes now, and some say, no"!

 The poem is addressed to the poet's wife as he prepares to depart on a journey. Donne compares their love to the movement of celestial bodies, arguing that physical separation cannot diminish their bond. Instead, he suggests that their souls remain connected, even when they are apart. The poem celebrates the enduring strength of their love, grounded not in fleeting physical pleasures but in a deeper spiritual union. Through his exploration of love as a stabilizing force in the face of separation, Donne highlights the metaphysical theme of the interconnectedness of all things.

 

The Sun Rising has very colloquial opening. Donne addresses sun as 'busy old fool' sun which is the center of our existence the reason of life on earth such a careless regard. The opining line itself turns the idea upside down. A conventional poetic address would regard sun as love giving, life giving qualities and with reverence. Intending of respecting sun Donne rebukes him and tells him to go away from that place because he peeps through curtains.

The sun disturbs lovers, and the first stanza, indicates the range of people on whom the sun should shine and awaken them. In the second stanza, he asks the sun what he thinks about himself. In the third stanza, Donne, the fact that all the world's wealth is insignificant in front of her love.

The poem 'The Sun Rising' consists of Donne's remarkable wit and conceit. This conceit continually upholds human regard. Intelligence brings about excitement in the witty movement. In spite of being full of wit, conceit and intelligent ideas, the tone of poem is colloquial.

 

 

Their Emotional Range and Variety

                Donne's love poems cover a wide range of feeling from extreme physical passion to spiritual love, and express varied moods ranging from a mood of cynicism and contempt to one of faith and acceptance. Donne's greatness as a love poet arises from the fact that his poetry covers a wider range of emotions than that of any previous poet, and that it is not bookish but is rooted in his personal experiences. His love experiences were wide and varied and so is the emotions range of his love-poetry. He had love affairs with a number of women, some of them lasting and permanent, others only of a short duration.

The Three Strains

                John Grierson distinguishes three distinct strains in it. 

First there is, (1) the cynical strain and his attitude towards women and their love and constancy is one of contempt and rejection. 

(2) Secondly, there is the strain of conjugal love to be noticed in poems like Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, addressed to his wife Anne Moore whom he loved passionately and in his relationship with her he attained spiritual peace and serenity. 

(3) Thirdly, there is the Platonic strain of poems like The Canonization in which love is treated as a holy passion, not different from the love of a devotee for his Maker. In between the cynical realistic strain and the highest spiritual strain, there are a number of poems which show an endless variety of mood and tone. Thus, there are poems in which the tone is harsh and defiant, others, which are coarse and brutal, still others in which he holds out a mocking threat to his faithless mistress as in the Apparition, and still others in which he is in a reflective mood. More often than not a number of strains and moods are mixed up in the same poem. This makes Donne as a love poet singularly original, unconventional and realistic.

 

Love-relationship Outside Marriage

                Donne doesn't agree with the idea that marriage is the only thing that makes sex okay, nor does he believe that sex is always sinful, whether in or out of marriage, as some people thought in the past. Instead, he believes that whether sex is pure or not depends on the quality of the relationship between the lovers. If both people genuinely enjoy being together, then having sex is a natural expression of their love. But if they're not truly connected mentally and emotionally, then sex is just a superficial pleasure.

 

Sometimes Donne acknowledges the societal rules that say sex should only happen within marriage, but he doesn't fully agree with them. He often sees a woman's willingness to give herself completely to her lover, both physically and emotionally, as a sign of her true love for him.

As Joan Bennet puts it,  

"Donne's love poetry is not about the difference between marriage and adultery, but about the difference between lust and love". 

The sexual act without love is merely lust whether within or outside marriage, with true love it is something holy even outside marriage.

Attitude Towards Womanhood

                Donne has often been labeled as cynical in how he views love and women. In his early poems, he shows contempt towards women. For example, in "Goe, and Catche a Falling Stare," he suggests that finding a faithful woman is impossible. In "Woman's Constancy," he ironically points out women's inconsistency. He criticizes them for giving in to his desires but also for refusing him.

 

However, we cannot agree with C.S. Lewis when he says, that contempt for woman is the dominant note of Donne's love-poetry. Nor does this make him a cynic in the real sense of the term, for when he finds a woman really worthy of his love, he calls her an angel and rises to the heights of true spiritual passion and almost Petrarchan adoration.

 

 

                In conclusion, John Donne's poetry reflects his status as a metaphysical poet of love through his exploration of themes such as spiritual awakening, the enduring nature of love, and the intertwining of physical desire and divine grace. Through intricate metaphors, rich imagery, and profound philosophical insights, Donne crafts a poetic vision that continues to captivate readers with its depth and complexity centuries after it was written.