John Donne as a Love Poet

John Donne was a great, prominent and eminent poet of Renaissance period who was not in favour of imitating the old Petrarchan or mostly beaten traditions of poetry. In fact, he was an original thinker who used his knowledge of biology, mathematics, sociology and medicine etc. in his poetry. He presented a score of new, surprising, startling and appalling conceits and images which had never been expounded by his predecessors.

He wrote love poems and divine poems almost with equal competence. He used conceits and images in his metaphysical poetry. Therefore, he is well-reputed as a prominent love poet and divine poet. His love poems are popular among the lovers of poetry. His philosophy of love can easily be understood through a famous verse from one of his love poems.

 

“If as in water stirred, more circles be,

By some pebble, love such additions take.”

 

However, it is a matter of great confusion to extract a definite, exact and accurate definition of love from his love poetry because his love poems are full of contradictory thoughts. Sometimes, he favours something and the very next moment, he casts a vote against it. Basically, he oscillates between physical love and spiritual love. He loves women and abhors them simultaneously. In one poem, he looks at women scornfully and yells at their faithlessness;

 

“And sweare,

No where,

Lives a woman, true and fair.”

 

In another poem, he seems to adore them devoutly. In ‘Sun Rising’, he addresses the sun and rebukes it for disturbing him and his beloved. He tells the sun;

 

“She is all states and all princes I,

Nothing else is!”

 

Dryden was the first critic who conferred the title of metaphysical poet on John Donne. Later on, this title was repeated by Dr. Samuel Johnson but in a contemptuous sense. The critics are of the opinion that he perplexes the mind of the fair sex (women) because his attitude towards women is not fixed one rather it depends upon his mood which determines his opinion about the women. Hence, his poems can be divided into three categories e.g., poems addressed to Anne More before and after marriage, Poems on moods of lovers and poems addressed to noble ladies.

Donne’s love poems are full of extra-ordinary and outstanding qualities. The blend of passion and thought is one of them. In one of his widely read poems, he says to his beloved;

 

“When I met you first, you beheld some love from. But it was meant for others and others could outbid me in sighs and tears. Even if I had all of your original love, there is a likelihood of another lover who could get more love you than me. So, we should join our hearts in order wholly to belong to each other. This is ratiocination.” (The process of exact thinking)

 

The greatest quality of Donne’s poetry is that he can check his passions with the faculty of reason. For example, in ‘The Flea’, he forbids his beloved to crush the flea, which had bitten them, because it meant three deaths e.g., the death of the lover, the beloved and the flea.

 

“Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,

Where we almost, nay more than married are.

This flea is you and I, and this

Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.”

John Donne’s treatment of love is quite realistic. He talks about all shades of love i.e., original, physical and sexual. Sometimes, he seems to be sensuous. He is well acquainted with the real intrigues of lovers and escapades of love. He knows very well the joys and charms of the secret meetings. Some of his poems are erotic even. At some point, he gives importance and significance to the real physical union. At another point, he says that physical union is not so necessary. In ‘A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’, he says that physical union is not necessary because love is actually;

 

“Inter-assured of the mind,

Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.”

 

Despite his realistic attitude, he does not like to dwell on the lips, eyes, eye brows, or other limbs of the women. He does not give any detail on the bodily features of the women. It is again a contradictory feature that some of his poems are surely sexual and sensual and even then, we do not find any description of any part of body of the weaker sex (women).

To conclude, we may say that John Donne is a great love poet who plays with the moods of lovers. His conceits and images make his love poetry more lovable.