|
READ THIS
This is a love poem where the poet explores the apparent depth of perfection to which his love and that
of his partner's stretches.
ABOUT THE POET
John Donne -- pronounced "Dunn" -- was born in London in 1572. His was a wealthy Catholic
family.
It was the time of the English Reformation, however, which meant that being a Catholic carried onerous
restrictions.
For example, although Donne went to both Oxford and Cambridge Universities, he could not graduate
without taking the Oath of Supremacy, something which he refused at the time to do.
His father left him a sizeable inheritance. He was a known womaniser, however, and made the dreadful
mistake of marrying one of these women in secret.
This caused his father-in-law to throw him into prison, refusing to pay his daughter's dowry.
The disgrace saw Donne cast out of a promising prosperous career. To mark this tragedy, Donne wrote
his now famous three line poem:
John Donne,
Anne Donne,
Undone.
It would take some ten years for the breach to heal and Donne's fortunes to look up.
At about this time the poet also decided to renounce the Catholic Church, probably because of the
advantages that being an Anglican would offer him.
His anti-Catholic writings soon caught the eye of King James himself who believed that Donne would be
a good churchman.
The poet, it seems, was then forced into taking Holy Orders against his will but nevertheless became
famous for the quality of the sermons which he preached.
Anne Donne died in 1617 while giving birth to their twelfth child. The poet's own life would take on a sickly
hue from then on, until he himself died in 1631.
Donne lived when the Voyages of Discovery were at their peak and talk was abounding of the New World
in the Americas.
Dinner parties would be dominated by maps showing the expansion of the British Empire versus the
regions being occupied by the Spaniards and the French.
It is this talk and these maps which are alluded to in this poem.
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
|
TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
I WONDER by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? were we not wean'd till then?
But suck'd on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers' den?
'Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be;
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee.
- Rewrite in your own words, "I wonder by my troth". (2)
[Need help?]
What about, "I truly wonder"?
|
- Comment on the poet's expression, "Were we not wean'd till then?" Is the poet referring to
being weaned from the mother's breast? (4)
[Need help?]
The poet is, of course, stating that up until this moment both he and his Loved-One were infants at love.
But it does seem from the next line of the poem that Donne is referring to being weaned from the bottle
rather than the nipple.
He speaks, after all, about having sucked on "country pleasures", i.e. the pleasures that the
countryside provides by which he presumably means cow's milk.
Actually Donne means more than this, but we will reserve our comments till we look at the more difficult
questions!
|
- Identify the various language devices used in this opening stanza. (4)
[Need help?]
Just a few are presented here:
Alliteration: "Were we not wean'd".
Sibilance: "snorted we in the Seven Sleepers' den".
Metaphor: "suck'd on country pleasures".
Can you see any more?
|
And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone;
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown;
Let us possess one world; each hath one, and is one.
- What is meant by "good-morrow"? (2)
[Need help?]
It's really a salutation, isn't it? As in "Good morning!" -- a greeting to their souls which have just
woken up from the sleep of childhood to the daytime of real love.
|
- Why would "our waking souls" not "watch one another out of
fear"? (4)
[Need help?]
This probably refers to all the fears that exist in a relationship that is not truly cemented in love and trust,
isn't it? Fears such as those caused by jealousy, distrust, mistrust, etc.
Once true love exists, says the poet, no such fear exists. Indeed, there is only total trust for each other.
|
- Comment on the significance of the lines, "Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone; | Let
maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown." (4)
[Need help?]
John Donne was writing at the peak of the Voyages of Discovery. Just as Iran, Iraq, Palestine and Israel
are current topics of news today, so word from the New World was the current topic of conversation back
then.
Dinner parties would be devoted to talk of the New World and the expanding British Empire. People would
pour over maps depicting a world about which they had previously known nothing. It would be not unlike
a trip to Mars for the modern person.
The poet, however, is reflecting that he and his Lady-Love would have no time for any of this. To them
the world was each other. They had no interest in anything else -- which is typical of infatuation, isn't it?
But is this love?
|
My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Whatever dies, was not mix'd equally;
If our two loves be one, or thou and I
Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die.
- What is meant by the two "hemispheres"? (4)
[Need help?]
Some say that the hemispheres are the curved shapes of the eyes. It is, however, more likely that the
poet means the circular shapes of the faces that are reflected in the eyes of the other.
Each would see reflected in the Loved-One's eyes the hemisphere that is his or her own face. The two
hemispheres would then join to make a single globe, a single being.
|
- What does the poet mean when he says that these two hemispheres are "without sharp north,
without declining west"? (4)
[Need help?]
The poet is, of course, describing these two hemispherical faces as though they were the world.
The world that is formed here, however, would have no frigidity, no northern ice-cap -- is the poet hinting
that there would be no sexual frigidity? -- and there would be no sun to set in the west.
Their love would, therefore, be both perfect and eternal.
|
- Rephrase the lines, "If our two loves be one, or thou and I love so alike that none can slacken, none
can die." (4)
[Need help?]
The poet is saying that, if two people be totally united in love in such a way that the love can never
diminish, then that love can never die.
When Donne speaks of two people being totally united in love, by the way, he probably means both
spiritually and sexually. The poet always seemed to fixate on the sexual component of love.
According to the poet, the two bodies have to unite sexually in order for the two souls to unite.
|
|
