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.

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