giovedì 6 novembre 2008

Lovers' Infiniteness

http://www.eaglezen.com/images/new%20pics/infinite%20ONE.jpg

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

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