Donne as a Poet of Love

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Introduction

As a poet of love, John Donne treats love differently than his Elizabethan contemporaries, who presented their beloved in a beautiful manner. Donne focuses on the more worldly side of love. His beloved is as ordinary as a human being. She is fickleness (unfaithful). The poet pens down his personal feelings and emotions in his love poems but Donne's sonnets present an exaggerated view of his love towards his beloved. Later, Donne's attitude towards love changed when he unveiled his "Divine Poems" which focused more on the spiritual connection of soul between human and God. Donne was not a mature poet of love. However, his lovely poetry got into the minds of his readers due to his witty and humourous style.

Three Kinds of Love

Donne's Love poetry is divided into three sub-categories

Cynical Love

The first kind of love visible from Donne's poetry is cynical or stiff. His cynicism is mostly based upon the unfaithful nature of women. For instance in Go Catch a Falling Star, Donne asserts that women are rarely loyal to their lovers. It is very difficult to find a faithful girl, just like a falling star. If he finds one, as soon as he reaches his beloved, she is changed, just like that falling star whose shine is short-lived [her affection for her lover is short-lived]. Donne becomes cynical when one of his beloved betrays him.

Conjugal Love

The other strain of Donne's love poetry can be traced in the inclusion of sensual love. He finds sensual love soothing and peaceful, not as a nasty affair between two lovers. Love is a beautiful balance of connection between soul and flesh. His poems, Valediction: Of Weeping and Valediction: Forbidden Mourning focus on the spiritual peacefulness of love. He deems love essential for life. Whenever he recalls his beloved in his solitude, his mind is filled with positive but sensual peace. So, conjugal love is purely presented in most of his poetry.

Divine Love

It is the last but an important kind of love found in Donne's poetry. Whenever love is shown before or after the marriage, there is the element of spirituality in it. The best poem to cite an example of Divine Love is The Sun Rising where the poet calls love the most beautiful passion on the planet. His Divine Poems present love as a holy passion. Thus forming an entirely opposite impression from cynical love.

Donne is Unconventional

Donne portrays love different from his Elizabethan fellows. We may find allusions to some old expressions but he mostly appears as a rebel who wants to form his "Whole New World". For instance, he portrays the separation of two lovers as two pairs of a mathematical compass which is joined on top. Their separation is physical but their love is spiritually connected through their souls. So, we can find scientific and logical imagery from his poems but no mythological gods or goddesses.

Donne's Portrayal of Women is Realistic

Before Donne's women in love were portrayed as fairies. Most of the poets followed traditional translations. But Donne and Ben Johnson fought against the rotten traditions. Donne's attitude towards love is realistic. He portrays women as they actually are. He assigns in them the weaknesses of flesh and the joys of secret meetings. But he tries to establish a balance between soul and flesh in love. Physical union may be useful for a prologue but the spiritual association is essential to keep the drama of life running. Because Donne's poetry is morally realistic, he can be regarded as one of the notable poets of love.

Limitations

Donne's love poetry does not give an allusion about the beauty of his beloved. There is no reference to the lips, hair and face of his beloved. Because he was not fond of sensual caricaturing. Another limitation of his poetry is his theme, only limited to the philosophy of love. He never used his pen for highlighting social or political issues. Even his Divine Poems are about love but the centre of his love is God and Christ.

Conclusion

Despite these limitations, Donne gave us enough tutorials to enjoy love at the time when Elizabethans were showcasing the pains and sorrows caused by love. Grierson sums up the debate accordingly,

His genius temperament and learning gave a certain qualities to his love poems … which arrest our attention immediately. His love poems, for instance, do have a power which is at once realistic and distracting.