martedì 13 gennaio 2009

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

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