The Apparition

When by thy scorn, O murd'ress, I am dead,
And that thou thinkst thee free
From all solicitation from me,
Then shall my ghost come to thy bed,
And thee, feign'd vestal, in worse arms shall see :
Then thy sick taper will begin to wink,
And he, whose thou art then, being tired before,
Will, if thou stir, or pinch to wake him, think
Thou call'st for more,
And, in false sleep, will from thee shrink :
And then, poor aspen wretch, neglected thou
Bathed in a cold quicksilver sweat wilt lie,
A verier ghost than I.
What I will say, I will not tell thee now,
Lest that preserve thee ; and since my love is spent,
I'd rather thou shouldst painfully repent,
Than by my threatenings rest still innocent.

This poem as well as ‘The Flea’ is a seduction poem however this one differs in tone making it a rejection poem. The past relationship between the speaker and the woman addressed was that once they were lovers. A solicitation (3) differs from a proposal because it means that the woman did not marry him out of her free will but for money. In line (15) the speaker proclaims that his love for the woman is ’spent’ meaning that he has given all the money that he could to her, this is known from the tone that he uses. In line 5 the speaker uses the word ‘vestal’ because in Ancient Rome the vestal virgins tended the perpetual fire in the temple of Vesta, They entered this service between the ages of six and ten, and served for a term of 30-40 years, during which they were bound to virginity. He uses the word Vestal instead of Virgin to give more emphasis to the tone and because he believes that she is not a virgin, the poet is accusing her to have gone with an other man. Donne gives an original twist to the poem in line 1 because in Renaissance poetry it was a cliché that a woman who would not satisfy her lover’s desires is ’killing’ him. In line 5 the speaker imagines that he will present him self to the woman as a ghost and will find her in worse arms than his own.

http://lardcave.net/hsc/2eng-donne-apparition-comments.html

http://www.illusionsgallery.com/apparition-L.jpg

Love's Diety

I long to talk with some old lover's ghost, Who died before the god of love was born.
I cannot think that he, who then loved most,
Sunk so low as to love one which did scorn.
But since this god produced a destiny,
And that vice-nature, custom, lets it be,
I must love her that loves not me.

Sure, they which made him god, meant not so much,
Nor he in his young godhead practised it.
But when an even flame two hearts did touch,
His office was indulgently to fit
Actives to passives. Correspondency
Only his subject was ; it cannot be
Love, till I love her, who loves me.

But every modern god will now extend
His vast prerogative as far as Jove.
To rage, to lust, to write to, to commend,
All is the purlieu of the god of love.
O ! were we waken'd by this tyranny
To ungod this child again, it could not be
I should love her, who loves not me.

Rebel and atheist too, why murmur I,
As though I felt the worst that love could do?
Love might make me leave loving, or might try
A deeper plague, to make her love me too ;
Which, since she loves before, I'm loth to see.
Falsehood is worse than hate ; and that must be,
If she whom I love, should love me.

In this poem the speaker presents the argument that true love does not exist unless both members of the relationship love each other equally. The speaker wishes that he could return to a time before the god of love was born so that he would not be forced to love a woman that does not love him back. In line two the speaker describes the god of love, or Eros, as a capricious tyrant who plays with the feelings of others without considering them. Donne reveals the importance of this argument or idea through the repetition of similar lines at the end of each stanza: ‘Love, till I love her, who loves me’. Even if these lines are not symmetric and could not be considered as a refrain, they bring the idea of the subject of the poem back at each stanza. In this poem Donne uses a meter to underline the importance of the stanzas in each poem.

http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Loves-Deity/101206

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-28046852.html

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-72276311.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/books/review/Mallon-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

The Legacy

When I died last, and, dear, I die
As often as from thee I go,
Though it be but an hour ago
—And lovers' hours be full eternity—
I can remember yet, that I
Something did say, and something did bestow ;
Though I be dead, which sent me, I might be
Mine own executor, and legacy.

I heard me say, "Tell her anon,
That myself," that is you, not I,
" Did kill me," and when I felt me die,
I bid me send my heart, when I was gone ;
But I alas ! could there find none ;
When I had ripp'd, and search'd where hearts should lie,
It kill'd me again, that I who still was true
In life, in my last will should cozen you.

Yet I found something like a heart,
But colours it, and corners had ;
It was not good, it was not bad,
It was entire to none, and few had part ;
As good as could be made by art
It seem'd, and therefore for our loss be sad.
I meant to send that heart instead of mine,
But O ! no man could hold it, for 'twas thine.

There are three stanzas in this poem composed of eight lines each. Here Donne uses dazzling wordplay to describe a love affair that he had with a woman that left him. In the first stanza Donne is saying that this is not the first time that a love affair has gone wrong and that he feels bad about it (1-3). Then he tells her that he is not her victim and that he is not feeling bad because of her but only because he chose so (meaning that he is his own executor and cause of legacy 7-8). At the end of the second stanza Donne talks about himself looking for his wounded heart (6-7 ) but can‘t find one. In the third stanza Donne finds something like the heart he is looking for (1), however even if it is similar to a heart he describes it full of colors and corners (2). Donne then says that he would have preferred losing this other heart instead of his own (7). I think that this heart that he is referring to is his judgment and is the cause for this legacy of suffering.

http://books.google.it/books?id=QxBx1Bf1eogC&pg=PA85&lpg=PA85&dq=The+legacy+john+donne+explanation&source=bl&ots=MuU3a15FDa&sig=ZvGHN3uspeFiB_JJDhHOe6F3GRo&hl=it&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result

Love's Usury

For every hour that thou wilt spare me now,
I will allow,
Usurious god of love, twenty to thee,
When with my brown my gray hairs equal be.
Till then, Love, let my body range, and let
Me travel, sojourn, snatch, plot, have, forget,
Resume my last year's relict ; think that yet
We'd never met.

Let me think any rival's letter mine,
And at next nine
Keep midnight's promise ; mistake by the way
The maid, and tell the lady of that delay ;
Only let me love none ; no, not the sport
From country grass to confitures of court,
Or city's quelque-choses ; let not report
My mind transport.

This bargain's good ; if when I'm old, I be
Inflamed by thee,
If thine own honour, or my shame and pain,
Thou covet most, at that age thou shalt gain.
Do thy will then ; then subject and degree
And fruit of love, Love, I submit to thee.
Spare me till then ; I'll bear it, though she be
One that love me.

Usury is the practice of lending money in change for a huge amount of interest. In the first stanza of this poem Donne addresses him self to the god of Love telling him that he will allow every hour of happiness that will be spared to him (1-2). In the third line of the first stanza Donne then is suspicious about the usury behind the hours of happiness that the god promises him. In line three Donne calls him ‘usurious god of Love’ because for every hour of happiness that he will grant, he will want 20 hours in change. Donne adds in line 4 that if he where to make a deal with the god of Love he would have to pay him until his hair would turn grey. In line five Donne does not care about the consequences and says that until the day that he will have to pay his usury let love take over his body. In the second stanza Donne seams to be caught in a fury of passion and starts loving all sorts of woman. In the third stanza Donne says that the bargain with the Love god is good if it will last until he is old (1-2). Donne then decides that if he will be able to feel the ardor of love until he will be old he chooses to submit to Love as long as there will be some woman to love him.

http://www.dbu.edu/naugle/pdf/donne_philosophy_love.pdf

The Undertaking

I have done one braver thing
Than all the Worthies did ;
And yet a braver thence doth spring,
Which is, to keep that hid.

It were but madness now to impart
The skill of specular stone,
When he, which can have learn'd the art
To cut it, can find none.

So, if I now should utter this,
Others—because no more
Such stuff to work upon, there is—
Would love but as before.

But he who loveliness within
Hath found, all outward loathes,
For he who color loves, and skin,
Loves but their oldest clothes.

If, as I have, you also do
Virtue in woman see,
And dare love that, and say so too,
And forget the He and She ;

And if this love, though placèd so,
From profane men you hide,
Which will no faith on this bestow,
Or, if they do, deride ;

Then you have done a braver thing
Than all the Worthies did ;
And a braver thence will spring,
Which is, to keep that hid.

The first three stanzas are very similar to the ones found in all of Donne’s poetry. In the first stanza (1-4) the speaker uses a boasting tone to modify his insistent enthusiasm with a great deal of reserve, in this way creating a paradox. The speaker then goes on talking about his love and compares love with stone (6), and concludes that describing his love to others would be like teaching them to cut diamond (7) which due to his inexperience with both the art of cutting stone and with love he can not describe them (8). In the fourth stanza however the speaker contradicts his analogy of love being rare, because he says that who ever find love within is able to find true love (13-14). This arises the questions that love is not rare as diamond in this way contradicting stanzas two and three making them look absurd, or gives the idea that stanza four does not represent the true experience of finding love. This contradiction in the speakers argument marks the distance between the speaker and the poet. Donne created this contradiction between himself and the speaker for creating laughter and mocking what the sophisticated people knew, by showing that love is not hard to find as diamond like the sophisticated people think but it is in the hearts of all.

http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=JsQGk2lGVF0GPbb12lTgM9Q14TcprwSKzjBZfT6TV6hDxlBnM1D9!1746175250?docId=95769258

http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng211/john_donne.htm

Lovers' Infiniteness

If yet I have not all thy love,
Dear, I shall never have it all ;
I cannot breathe one other sigh, to move,
Nor can intreat one other tear to fall ;
And all my treasure, which should purchase thee,
Sighs, tears, and oaths, and letters I have spent ;
Yet no more can be due to me,
Than at the bargain made was meant.
If then thy gift of love were partial,
That some to me, some should to others fall,
Dear, I shall never have thee all.

Or if then thou gavest me all,
All was but all, which thou hadst then ;
But if in thy heart since there be or shall
New love created be by other men,
Which have their stocks entire, and can in tears,
In sighs, in oaths, and letters, outbid me,
This new love may beget new fears,
For this love was not vow'd by thee.
And yet it was, thy gift being general ;
The ground, thy heart, is mine ; what ever shall
Grow there, dear, I should have it all.

Yet I would not have all yet.
He that hath all can have no more ;
And since my love doth every day admit
New growth, thou shouldst have new rewards in store ;
Thou canst not every day give me thy heart,
If thou canst give it, then thou never gavest it ;
Love's riddles are, that though thy heart depart,
It stays at home, and thou with losing savest it ;
But we will have a way more liberal,
Than changing hearts, to join them ; so we shall
Be one, and one another's all.

In the first stanza Donne says that if he will never have all of the love, then he never will (1-2). He says that until he will not have all of the love in this moment, then henever will. Until then he will not even be able to breath or cry (3-4). Donne says that he will not be able to find this love in objects that he can buy, or in love letters. In lines 7-8 he says that nothing can be added that is not already within this love. In the second stanza Donne talks about the greatness of love saying that when he was born he had all the love he needed (2) and when he grew up, his love was contaminated by the love in the hearts of other men who based it on a materialistic point of view. Donne says that by doing so these men cry and despair when they do not obtain what they want (4-7). Donne says that the cause of sadness is that this materialistic type of love was not wanted by God (8). Donne concludes that when he will find his love in his heart he will no longer need any other type of ‘mundane’ love world already belongs to him (9-10). In the third stanza Donne says that even if one would have the world, he would still have nothing and says that he who has already obtained everything can not obtain anything else (2). At the end Donne contemplates on love’s riddles (7) saying that the mor eone wants the less he haves.

http://books.google.it/books?id=QxBx1Bf1eogC&pg=PA85&lpg=PA85&dq=Lovers'+Infiniteness+john+donne+explanation&source=bl&ots=MuU3a16Cxb&sig=Dqnwt-kqfkQKgCUr0oJeNHyrnbQ&hl=it&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result

The Indifferent

I can love both fair and brown ;
Her whom abundance melts, and her whom want betrays ;
Her who loves loneness best, and her who masks and plays ;
Her whom the country form'd, and whom the town ;
Her who believes, and her who tries ;
Her who still weeps with spongy eyes,
And her who is dry cork, and never cries.
I can love her, and her, and you, and you ;
I can love any, so she be not true.

Will no other vice content you ?
Will it not serve your turn to do as did your mothers ?
Or have you all old vices spent, and now would find out others ?
Or doth a fear that men are true torment you ?
O we are not, be not you so ;
Let me—and do you—twenty know ;
Rob me, but bind me not, and let me go.
Must I, who came to travel thorough you,
Grow your fix'd subject, because you are true ?

Venus heard me sigh this song ;
And by love's sweetest part, variety, she swore,
She heard not this till now ; and that it should be so no more.
She went, examined, and return'd ere long,
And said, "Alas ! some two or three
Poor heretics in love there be,
Which think to stablish dangerous constancy.
But I have told them, 'Since you will be true,
You shall be true to them who're false to you.' "

Donne writes about a lover who is indifferent (as the title says) to the woman that he loves, saying that he can love any woman, ‘I can love both fair and brown’ (1). In this poem the lover considers having only one woman as a vice and having more than one woman with different traits as a virtue and as good sense. This message of considering constancy as a sin and promiscuity as a virtue is repeated through out all the stanzas in different ways. Due to Donne’s Christian background this poem was obviously a satire against the people which did not have Christian values, showing their vanity with woman and never being at peace (2nd Stanza). This is one of Donne’s first poems, that he wrote when he was still young due to his simplicity and thoughtlessness, this poem also shows more freedom due to it’s satirical arguments. This poem makes fun of Petrarch’s idea of eternal faithfulness, comparing it with the non moral acts of people in the sphere of influence of love. In Donne’s poem what his speaker says is completely opposite of Petrarch’s doctrine where ones love was aimed especially for one woman. The audience to who the poem was directed was very important because it could change the tone and the meaning completely. If it was directed for a lower class, the people could actually think that Donne considered promiscuity actually as a virtue and not understand his fine meaning.

http://www.123helpme.com/preview.asp?id=60741