A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning by John Donne | Summary, Analysis, Explanation

 A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning by John Donne | Summary, Analysis, Explanation

Hello and welcome to the Discourse.

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning is one of the finest love poems of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras that was written in 1611-1612 by John Donne. The poem was published posthumously in 1633 in Donne’s collection Songs and Sonnets. John Donne was bound to a trip to Continental Europe and before leaving his beloved pregnant wife Anne alone, he wrote this poem.

The poem has 36 lines composed in nine stanzas, thus each stanza has four lines. Unlike other poems by John Donne which often have a strange rhyming scheme, A Valediction rather has a simple form with a consistent rhyming scheme ABAB in all stanzas. All the lines of the nine stanzas are in Iambic tetrameter.

Themes of A Valediction:

Just like in many of his other poems, Donne explains his philosophy of love, death, and spirituality while using some surprising conceits. The poem can be considered as an example of Carpe Diem poetry. A Carpe Diem poem suggests or promotes a particular way of living while reminding the reader that death is continuously lurking behind.

The poem begins with a description of a group of friends standing around the deathbed of a virtuous man. They discuss imminent death while the poet turns that feeling into enthusiasm towards life. He then suggests the importance of love and how his love for his beloved is spiritual in nature.

A Valediction is a metaphysical poem and Donne offers some surprising metaphors, conceit, and imagery in this poem. The very prominent imagery is that of troublesome disastrous weather patterns. Donne uses these weather patterns to describe the love of a different couple and then he suggests why his love for his beloved is of higher spiritual value.

The most important conceit offered by Donne in this poem is that of a compass. Donne compares his relationship with his wife Anne to the compass. Donne describes the compass as ‘stiff’ with a ‘fixed foot’ that doesn’t waiver around. It is his wife’s part. The other part of the compass is the poet himself that continues to roam around. The steadfastness of his wife always brings him back to her. The compass represents the balance between the couple.

However, the most bizarre, yet meaningful conceit is the comparison between the calm and peaceful death of a virtuous person and the mature spiritual love of a loyal couple.

Summary of A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

As virtuous men pass mildly away,

And whisper to their souls to go,

Whilst some of their sad friends do say

The breath goes now, and some say, No:

The poet begins with an image of death. A virtuous man is on his deathbed. He led a virtuous and honorable life and now he is about to die peacefully. Donne expresses death here as ‘whispering tone’s soul away.’ Donne uses onomatopoeia (Whisper) here. The man is surrounded by his well-wishers and friend. His death is so calm that his friends are unable to decide whether he passed away or not. They ask each other if the breath is going on or not. The man led a satisfactory life and even at his death, there is no need for mourning, desperation, and dissatisfaction.

So let us melt, and make no noise,

No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;

'Twere profanation of our joys

To tell the laity our love.

The reader may wonder why the poet depicted a death scene in the first stanza. In the second stanza, he offers his insight. He specifically wrote this poem for his wife before going away on a sea voyage, leaving her alone. The poet compares the peaceful death of a virtuous man to the love between him and his wife. He suggests to his wife that though they are going to separate for a while, their separation shouldn’t accompany ‘tear-floods’, and ‘sigh-tempests.’ The poet belittles other couples who show their passion in open. He suggests that his relationship with his lover is way better and respectable. It will be profanity to show their joys of meeting and sadness before he departs away to ‘laity’ or common people. So the poet is saying that though, unfortunately, he is forced to go away while leaving his wife alone, their relationship is so mature, strong, and superior to relationships of others who fail to control their passion, that they will bear this troublesome time with complete calm. The poet says that their farewell should be as mild as the uncomplaining deaths of virtuous men,

Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears,

Men reckon what it did, and meant;

But trepidation of the spheres,

Though greater far, is innocent.

The poet further suggests that his relationship with his wife is superior to the relationships between other couples. He says that the separation of a common couple is like an earthquake that brings a lot of harm, fears, and suspicion. However, he is also going away from his wife but they are no common couple, they are superior. Unlike the earthly people, their love is celestial. Just like the earth, other celestial bodies like the spherical Sun, or moon, also go through trepidations but they cause no harm no fear. His relationship is not like a showy earthquake, but it is much more genuine and powerful like the movement of celestial spheres.

Also, the poet suggests that his going away is no big deal and there is no need to cry and complain as if some disastrous earthquake has occurred.

Dull sublunary lovers' love

(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit

Absence, because it doth remove

Those things which elemented it.

The poet continues to belittle other couples describing their lesser love as ‘Dull’ and ‘Sublunary.’ Their love is not brightly shining like the moon, but it exists under the moon, or the brightness of the moon (celestial sphere) hides their love. The poet already compared his and his wife’s love as a celestial sphere. He further explains that the love of others is dependent on senses. The soul of their relationship is based on senses like to touch and see, their love is a carnal affair. In such cases, when the two lovers move away or get separated, the poet explains that the love also evaporates. Absence, or separation removes the love between such couples as in absence, or separation, they cannot see or touch each other.

But we by a love so much refined,

That our selves know not what it is,

Inter-assured of the mind,

Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.

The poet dedicates the fifth stanza to explain the spiritual platonic nature of his and his wife’s relationship. The poet says that his and his wife’s relationship is so much refined and pure that they themselves are unable to grasp its spirituality, their love has got mysterious qualities. Their love is not completely carnal and it is much less dependent on eyes, lips, and hands. Thus, even in separation, these senses of touch and vision won’t be missed as the two lovers are bound mentally, spiritually, and despite being separated physically, they won’t feel any separation as on mental, spiritual levels, they will remain close, as one.

Our two souls therefore, which are one,

Though I must go, endure not yet

A breach, but an expansion,

Like gold to airy thinness beat.

In the sixth stanza, the poet strengthens his idea about the spiritual relationship between himself and his wife. Donne employs a simile and compares his love relationship to gold, the purest, malleable metal. He declares the nature of his relationship that has made the two souls of his and his wife as one. This oneness allows them to bear the physical separation. The poet suggests that his, going away, is not a breach of their relationship, rather it is just an expansion. They may physically remain apart, still, their soul is one. The poet explains this expansion by using the example of gold which stretches when it is beaten.

If they be two, they are two so

As stiff twin compasses are two;

Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show

To move, but doth, if the other do.

In the seventh stanza, Donne says that even if it is not so, even if their souls are not combined, they are not one, then also, their relationship has tied their two souls in the manner of a stiff compass in which there are two parts, one is his wife which remains ‘fixed footed’ and doesn’t wander. The other part is the poet himself who continues to wander and move away, yet, is tied to the ‘fixed foot.’His wife is the steady soul that remains grounded and doesn’t show. Like the fixed leg of a compass, it never moves independently but shows balanced movement when the other leg moves.

Donne used exaggerated simile here. He presented his relationship with his wife ‘as’ a stiff twin compass with two legs.

And though it in the center sit,

Yet when the other far doth roam,

It leans and hearkens after it,

And grows erect, as that comes home.

Donne continues the conceit in the eighth stanza and explains how his wife leans like a string when he wanders away and succeeds in bringing him back. It is like the fixed leg of a compass doesn’t move by itself. But when the other leg moves away under the magnetic effect, the fixed leg, bound to the wandering leg bents and leans towards the other leg. This stretched bond hearkens of pulls back the wandering leg at its place. Similarly, Donne’s wife leans towards him when he is away and pulls him back home. Once the fixed leg gains its original position, it again becomes stiff and erect.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,

Like th' other foot, obliquely run;

Thy firmness makes my circle just,

And makes me end where I begun.

Donne continues the explanation of his conceit in the ninth stanza and concludes the poem. He explains how the fixed leg of a compass keeps the wandering leg intact while allowing it to move in just balanced circle. In the same manner, the firmness and loyalty of his wife make his trips and tour just. And just like the wandering leg of a compass, he also always comes back to his home, from where he began. The poet declares that no matter where he goes and what he does, the firmness of his wife will always bring him back to his home.

Donne wrote this poem to his wife to make her strong enough to bear the separation. First, he explained why mourning or complaining about his going away is useless. He raised the spiritual love between his wife and him and explained how they are two bodies but one soul, and thus, physically they may separate, on a spiritual level, they are one. He compared his relationship with gold. Then the poet further strengthened his point of why mourning and complaining at his separation from his wife must be avoided. He explains that even if he and his wife are two different souls, they are bound to each other like the two legs of a compass. He compares his wife with the fixed leg as she is not the one who is going away. He describes his wife as a firm, loyal and just character who hearkens the poet to remain just, loyal and bound to her. The firmness of his wife’s character is what brings the poet back to his home whenever he goes away.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss a few more poems by John Donne, including his religious works and then we will move towards other metaphysical poets of the same era. Please stay connected with the Discourse, thanks, and regards!

The Green Knight | Movies based on Classic Literature

 The Green Knight | Movies based on Classic Literature

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The Old English Literature is making sweet sounds again with David Lorey’s directorial The Green Knight, an American movie. The plot is based on the epic poem Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire fame has played the role of Sir Gawain while Sarita Choudhary, the Queen of Kama Sutra: A Love Story, or Mina of Mississippi Masala has played the part of Morgan Le Fay, step-sister of King Arthur and Mother to Sir Gawain. Ralph Ineson has played the part of the Green Knight.

Movies Based on Classic Literature

Often filmmakers use classic literature to present the age-old stories suitably changed to present them with a modern look. Many Shakespearean dramas have been turned into movies and most of them proved to be enormously successful. Heath Ledger’s 10 Things I Hate About You was based on The Taming of the Shrew. It was released in 1999. While some minute changes and differences in the original and modern stories appear to be necessary, sometimes filmmakers introduce some bizarre changes in the original plot. One such bizarre change was made in the story of Romeo and Juliet, another romantic comedy by Shakespeare in 2013 when Nicholas Hault and Teressa Palmer's Warm Bodies was released. Warm Bodies tells the same classic story of Romeo and Juliet albeit the modern Romeo is a half-dead zombie and the modern Julliet is a living human who has vowed to kill as many zombies as she can. Unlike other zombie movies, Warm Bodies have a nice happy ending. She’s the Man (2006) was a nice depiction of The Twelfth Knight by Shakespeare.

George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion inspired Audrey Hepburn’s My Fair Lady and Dev Anand’s Man Pasand. Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice has been filmed many times and the recent rendition was Bridget Jone’s Diary, released in 2001. Jane Austin’s Emma inspired the film Clueless which was released in 1995. As a surprise, Charle’s Dickinson’s A Tale of Two Cities has a big influence on the movie Batman The Dark Knight Rises which was released in 2012.

While Shakespearean Romance has remained the favorite of filmmakers around the globe, stories of the Old English and Middle English periods have also gained enough attention. In 2001, A Knight’s Tale was released which, as the title suggests, was based on the first story of Sir Geoffrey Chaucer’s epic The Canterbury Tales. Heath Ledger was again the star of The Knight’s Tale. Interestingly, the movie also had the character of Geoffrey Chaucer played by Paul Bettany. So Geoffrey Chaucer of 2001 observes the happenings in the movie and then decides to pen the story down for his collection The Canterbury Tales.

The Old English Stories

Sir J.R.R. Tolkein’s research and translation of old English literature brought a new life to the age-old marvelous mythical stories of Beowulf and Sir Gawain. He translated Beowulf, Pearl, Purity, Patience, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Tolkien was very much influenced by the Norse mythologies and old English epic poems and this influence are largely visible in his epic novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Filmmakers couldn’t keep away from these fantasy stories set in the age-old English period for long and in 2001, Peter Jackson began his tri-series The Lord of the Rings with the first installment titled The Fellowship of the Ring. Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, both show the influences of Beowulf and Sir Gawain. The depiction of the dragon in The Hobbit is specifically influenced by the dragon encountered by Beowulf.

Sir Gawain’s chivalric romance has also been revised as feature films and television series several times. In 1984, Sword of the Valiant was released in which Miles O’Keefe played the role of Sir Gawain while Sean Connery played the part of the Green Knight. The recent addition to the list of adaptations is Dev Patel’s The Green Knight.

Gawain Poet’s Story

Sir Gawain and The Green Knight was written by an anonymous writer during the 14^th century. We do not know much about the writer except that he was a contemporary of Chaucer but unlike him, the Gawain poet or better known as the Pearl poet chose to write in West Saxon Dialect. Chaucer preferred the London dialect and always promoted it. The poem is a long epic with 25,00 lines written in alliterative style using internal rhyme. The poem follows the Bob and the Wheel metrical pattern where each stanza ends with a short half-line having only two syllables (Bob). This short half-line is followed by a mini-stanza of longer lines in internal rhyming (Wheel).

The poem tells an Arthurian tale and begins in Camelot on New Year’s Eve where King Arthur is enjoying a feast with his wife Queen Guinevere and his brave knights. The youngest knight in King Arthur’s court is Sir Gawain who is his nephew too. His mother is Morgan Le Fay, the step-sister of King Arthur who is a benevolent enchantress. Morgan is suspicious of Queen Guinevere and she decides to play a trick on her. While King Arthur and his knights are enjoying the feast, a mysterious strong personality appears in Camelot. This mysterious person is wearing all green cloth and his skin and hair are also green and he is riding a green horse. He greets everyone and introduces himself as the Green Knight. All the knights of Camelot get anxious as they have heard the rumors that the Green Knight is immortal, someone who cannot be killed. The green knight claims that he has no wrong intentions but he came to greet King Arthur and his brave knights and proposes a friendly game. The Green Knight wears no badge no armor but has an impressive strong ax in his one hand. He challenges the knights of Camelot to strike his head once with his ax on a condition that the green knight will return the strike after the completion of one year and one day. Nobody is ready to take the challenge as they know that the Green Knight cannot be killed. King Arthur rises and decides to take the challenge himself but Sir Gawain, the youngest of them all interrupts him and demands that this honor should be given to him. Sir Gawain takes the marvelous ax of Green Knight and strikes his neck with it. Green Knight’s head falls on the floor but he doesn’t die. His remaining body picks up the head and he departs from the court while reminding Sir Gawain that he will have to take the strike back, after one year and one day.

While everyone praises Sir Gawain for his bravery, he is a little pensive as he now knows that after one year and one day, he will have to take the strike back on his neck and unlike the Green Knight, he will surely die.

As the end of the year reaches near, Sir Gawain decides to seek the Green Knight to take the strike back. First, he is robbed by scavengers during the travel. Then he meets a beautiful lady whom he saves from the robbers. The voluptuous lady takes him to her husband Sir Bertilak’s castle. At the castle, Sir Gawain sees an old and ugly woman. Despite her ugliness, everyone in the castle treats her with the utmost respect. Sir Gawain feels that he knows that old ugly woman but he fails to remember anything about her. Sir Gawain meets the husband of that beautiful lady and informs him about his intentions to seek the Green Chapel where he may meet the Green Knight to take his strike back. Sir Bertilak praises Sir Gawain and his intention to fulfill his promise. He informs him that the Green Chapel is only two miles away from his castle.

Sir Bertilak greets Sir Gawain and offers a strange deal. Bertilak says that Sir Gawain can use his castle and enjoy his remaining time with all possible amenities. Furthermore, Bertilak will share whatever he gains from his hard work during the day with Sir Gawain but in return, Sir Gawain will also have to give half of whatever he gets during the day. Sir Gawain agrees.

The next day, when Bertilak goes out to hunt, his wife approaches Sir Gawain and tries to seduce him. She owns an extremely beautiful voluptuous body but Sir Gawain is determined not to fall prey. Yet, Gawain couldn’t afford to make her angry so he offers her a mere kiss. Her husband returns at night and offers a dead deer to Sir Gawain that he hunted. In return, Sir Gawain kisses him too because that was all he earned during the day. The next day, Bertilak’s wife again tries to seduce Sir Gawain and she fails again. She offers him a magical ring with a golden red stone. She says that Gawain should take that ring as it will keep him safe against any imminent danger. However, Sir Gawain refuses to take the ring but agreed to offer her two kisses.

Her husband returns at night and he offers a wild boar to Sir Gawain. Sir Gawain offers him two kisses that he earned during the day. Meanwhile, the end of the year is very near and Sir Gawain is too worried about the Green Knight’s strike and his imminent death. The next day, Bertilak’s wife again approaches Gawain and furiously tries to seduce him but fails again. At last, she says that she admires the character of Sir Gawain and doesn’t want any harm to him. She offers him a girdle and says that it will protect him against the Green Knight’s strike.

Sir Gawain is too much afraid of death and he falls this time. He takes the girdle. The lady says that he should hide that girdle from her husband otherwise he will have to give it to him. At night, when Bertilak returns, he offers Gawain a dead fox that he killed during the day. Gawain hides the girdle but offers him three kisses, suggesting that he earned all that he earned during the day.

The next day is the last for Gawain. He decides to go to the Green Chapel to encounter the Green Knight. When he reaches there, he bows his head to take the strike from the Green Knight. When the Green Knight strikes at his neck, Sir Gawain flinches away out of fear. The Green Knight laughs at him. Ashamed, Sir Gawain bows his head again and says he won't move away again. The Green Knights start to take the strike but don’t strike Sir Gawain for a while. When puzzled Sir Gawain questions him, he laughs again and says he was just testing him. The Green Knight strikes Sir Gawain's neck for the third time but his ax fails to behead him, leaving a mark of strike on his neck. The magical green girdle saved the life of Sir Gawain. The cloud thunders and the Green Knight changes his appearance at the same time. Sir Gawain comes to know that the Green Knight is none else but Bertilak, the lord of the castle where he took rest. Bertilak informs him that it was all a test to check his bravery. He informs him that this test was set by Sir Gawain’s own mother Morgan Le Fay. Sir Gawain then realizes that the old ugly lady he witnessed at Bertilak’s castle resembled his mother, though his mother is very beautiful but in disguise.

Sir Gawain is ashamed for the treachery he committed and informs Bertilak how his wife tried to seduce him and how she offered him the magical girdle that saved his life. Bertilak laughs at this revelation and informs Sir Gawain that he already knows all of it. He announces that Sir Gawain is still the most honest and bravest knight of King Arthur despite his weaknesses.

Sir Gawain is still not convinced and he decides to keep the girdle bound on his waist forever to keep reminding him about his weaknesses. He returns to Camelot and informs King Arthur about his experiences. King Arthur and the other knights praise him and all the knights decide to wear a green girdle on their waist just like Sir Gawain does.

As one can see, this epic poem is full of magic, awesome scenery, dreadful actions, and enchanting mysteries. The Indian film industry is also engaged in producing a depiction of epic Mahabharata in which Deepika Padukon is playing the part of Draupadi and Hrithik Roshan is set to play the role of Karna while Amir Khan is set to play the role of Shri Krishna. Let’s hope that this Bollywood project will do justice to the epic story of Mahabharata.

This is for today. We will continue without discussion on English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!

MCQs on the Jacobean and Caroline Plays and Playwrights

 Hello and welcome to the Discourse!

Let us revise the plays of the Jacobean and Caroline era. We have already offered a series of multiple-choice questions based on the works of William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. Let us now revise the works of other prominent Jacobean and Caroline dramatists including Beaumont and Fletcher, John Webster, Thomas Middleton, Thomas Heywood, Philip Massinger, John Ford, James Shirley, and Thomas Dekker. It will be a multiple-choice question series. We will cover some interesting plays including The Changeling, A Game of Chess, A Woman Killed with Kindness, The Roaring Girl, The Shoemaker's Holiday, The Duchess of Malfi, The White Devil, The English Traveler, The Four Prentices of London, Tis Pity She's a Whore and so on... We will continue to offer similar multiple-choice question series on various topics related to English literature as we strive to offer a complete course for the preparation of UGC NET English literature, NTA NET English literature, PGTRB English,, SET English literature, TGT PGT English, GATE English Literature, and other exams, please stay connected with the Discourse, Thanks, and Regards!.

The Good Morrow by John Donne | Summary, Analysis, Explanation

 The Good Morrow by John Donne | Summary, Analysis, Explanation

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Good Morrow is a metaphysical morning poem (aubade) by John Donne which was first published in his collection Songs and Sonnets in 1633. It is a secular love poem in which he compares love as a new religion the two lovers have founded. He compares himself and his lover with Seven Sleepers of Christian mythology. The seven sleepers is a myth of seven Christian children whom the Roman king Decius forced to renounce Christianity but they remained loyal to their faith. Ultimately, king Decius ordered them to be captured and left in a cave to die. In the cave, the seven Christian kids were trapped and they fell asleep. God protected them against all odds and they woke up again 200 years later.

So the poem has some interesting metaphysical conceit. John Donne also raises the astronomical progress of his times in this poem and he mentions the exploration of the New World.

Just like The Sun Rising, this poem is also an aubade and the poet brings the reader right into his bedroom where he and his beloved are just waking up after a calm sleep. Here also, John Donne uses conceit as the poem suggests that their love has awakened them and has offered them a new life as if they were in deep slumber before coming to know each other. Now when they are together and have realized the true love within, it is like a new morning, and the poet greets his lover and readers with Good Morrow, which is an old manner of greeting good morning...

Structure of the Poem

While it is often considered as a sonnet, the poem is not in the standard form of sonnets. The poem has 21 lines with 3 stanzas having 7 lines each (heptet). The first six lines in each stanza are in iambic pentameter (with some exceptions) while the last line of each stanza is a little longer. The last line of each stanza is in an iambic hexameter. John Donne has used alliteration, assonance, and caesura at various places in the poem. The rhythm scheme of the poem is ababccc which is quite unusual. The poet offers his idea in the first four lines while the last three lines of each stanza have been used to offer confirmation or conclusion.

Summary of The Good Morrow

I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I

Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?

But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?

Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?

’Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be.

If ever any beauty I did see,

Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.

John Donne often expressed a strong idea of love in his poems. For him, love was heat, fire, growth, or progress, unity, alchemy, a whole living organism, the whole universe, and a new sacred religion. Donne begins the poem right in his bedroom where the poet and his beloved just got up after a calm sleep. The poet asks himself and his beloved a puzzling question that takes the reader into the poet's mind. The language is old English, thou means you, and ‘by my troth’ means in all honesty or truth. The question appears after the enjambment in the second line. The poet asks what kind of life were he and his beloved leading before they fell in love and became lovers.

The poet further asks, “Were we not weaned till then?” weaned means to be influenced from a situation or early age here. The poet suggests that before the two lovers met and became lovers, they were not mature but childish, as if they were babies sucking their mothers' breasts. Thus, before falling in love, the two of them were just like infants. The poet further asks that weren’t the two lovers just wasting their life childishly on cheaper sensualities and immature sexual pleasure before realizing the true love.

In the next line, the poet offers a strong allusion to Christian mythology. He suggests that before falling in love, they were asleep, like the Seven Sleepers who continued to sleep for 200 years after the Roman king Decius imprisoned them in a sealed cave. So the poet says that both of them were asleep until they fell in love. Love woke them up and love became their true religion.

The poet poses his idea about love in these first four lines (quatrain).

In the next three lines, the poet affirms his assertion about love. ‘Twas So; but this...’

The poet says that they were childish and were sleeping before they fell in love as if they were just dreaming. Donne says that even before experiencing true love, he got everything of beauty that he desired, but all of it was false as a dream, it wasn’t real.

And now good-morrow to our waking souls,

Which watch not one another out of fear;

For love, all love of other sights controls,

And makes one little room an everywhere.

Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,

Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,

Let us possess one world, each hath one and is one.

The poet concludes that they were not alive or were just in deep slumber before falling in love in the first stanza. Now when love has awakened them, the poet begins the second stanza by greeting good morning to himself and his beloved. So the poet suggests that love has brought them a new beginning, a new life, a new morning.

In the second line, the poet asserts the wholeness of their love. There is no fear nor doubts as to both lovers equally care for each other and are true to each other. The poet says that now the two lovers see the whole world with a new vision of love as love controls all their sights. He brings upon the philosophical idea of ‘A Man is a Universe in Himself.’ They see the world through love and their little bedroom is a whole microcosm in itself. But since their love is Universal and pervades all, their microcosm is equivalent to the whole macrocosm.

In the next line, Donne uses the metaphor and suggests that since the two lovers are a whole new universe in themselves which requires a great exploration and new discoveries, it is equivalent to the exploration of the New World (or America) which was in vogue during his time. Furthermore, Donne was also aware of the new astronomical ideas of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo (that the earth revolves around the sun and not vice versa). In the 16^th century, exploration of new lands on earth and alien world in the sky were gaining momentum and Donne uses this fact in his poem. He suggests that while the two lovers are a whole universe within themselves, they possess a new world or universe of love together which is now ready to be explored and revealed.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,

And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;

Where can we find two better hemispheres,

Without sharp north, without declining west?

Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;

If our two loves be one, or, thou and I

Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.

Donne begins the third stanza while expressing his closeness with his beloved. The two lovers gaze into each other’s eyes and they can see the reflection of each other as if they are one. This shows the strength of the bond between the two lovers. The poet further poses a question and asks (where can we find two better hemispheres). The poet suggests that their eyes and face are two hemispheres of a single entity, a single whole circle of love. These hemispheres are specific with no sharp north. Donne offers imagery of the earth here. Unlike earth, the hemispheres of their love world don’t have a sharp north and hence, it is warm throughout everywhere, nowhere cold. What the poet means is that their love is constantly warm with no dips. He further says that there is no declining west in their whole sphere of the love of which the two lovers are hemispheres. The sunsets in the west, but since their love world has no declining west, their sun of love is always rising.

In the next three lines, Donne offers the conclusion that their love is eternal and it has united the two lovers as if they are one and equal with no difference. Donne uses alchemy here and suggests that a person dies because of the imbalances of fluids in his body (it was a renaissance idea of the 16th-17th century). Since their love has no imbalance, it is equally mixed and it makes the two lovers united as single, hence non of the lovers can feel weak or diminish, they are eternal as their love which will never die. In the last stanza, the poet suggests that while the lovers were in slumber before they met and fell in love, but now love has awakened them and they are fully conscious as love has miraculously awakened their souls and joined them to become one. Donne compared love with religion here again and indicates that their love is like that explained by Paul the Apostle who claimed that true love and full awakening is possible only in heaven.

The Good Morrow is similar to Donne’s other poem The Sun Rising that we have already discussed. Both these are secular poem presents Donne’s theory of love. For Donne, love is a consciousness of souls which unites two souls and makes them whole.

We will continue to discuss some other important works by John Donne. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!

Death Be Not Proud by John Donne | Holy Sonnet 10 Summary, Analysis, Explanation

 Death Be Not Proud by John Donne | Holy Sonnet 10 Summary, Analysis, Explanation

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Death Be Not Proud is a metaphysical poem by John Donne that has been written in the structure of a sonnet. It has 14 lines with a rhythm scheme of ABBA ABBA CDDC AA. The poem was first published (posthumously) in 1633 after John Donne’s demise. This sonnet has religious connotations and it has been included in Donne’s Holy Sonnets or Divine Meditations. Holy Sonnet is a collection of religious sonnets that were written by John Donne. There are 19 such sonnets and Death Be Not Proud is sonnet number 10.

Death be Not Proud has 4 stanzas, the first three stanzas have four lines each while the last stanza is a doublet with two lines.

Sonnets are often written in praise of a loved one. But this is a holy sonnet that is inspired by Christian theology.

Summary

John Donne personified Death in this poem to offer his philosophy of life and death. In the beginning, the poet warns the death and commands ‘him’ not to feel pride in his powers. The poet suggests that while the death thinks that he has eliminated his victims, the fact is that the death just offered those tired souls some relief to rest.

In the first stanza, the poet criticizes death and warns him against feeling pride in his powers. The poet suggests that death is not in command rather he is a slave to other forces like chance, fate, kings, and desperate men. Desperate men are those who being cowardly, take their own lives to run away from worldly sufferings and responsibilities.

The second stanza is in contrast with the first as the poet praises death for its good qualities. The poet suggests that death doesn’t eliminate, but he offers rest and relief to its victims who are tired of life. Death offers a sound sleeping bed. In the third stanza, the poet again condemns death and suggests that even drugs like charms and poppy can offer the desired relief.

In the last stanza, the poet further condemns death while predicting the end of death itself by stating, ‘Death, thou shalt die.”

John Donne wrote this poem when he was suffering from Typhoid and the dangers of death. He contemplated and penned his thoughts in the form of this poem whose first line resembles the opening of another contemporary poem “Death be not proud, thy hand gave not this blow” which was written by Lucy Harrington Russel, Countess of Bedford. Lucy was a patron of John Donne.

Line by Line Explanation

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;

Line 1-2

The poem starts with the bold and commanding stance of the poet. Donne personifies the death and addresses it as a man. The poet commands death not to feel proud as while many people consider death as dreadful, strong, and mighty,

When a poet addresses a person or thing who is not present or cannot respond, then it is known as ‘apostrophe’. John Donne offered one of the finest examples of Apostrophe in this sonnet. He personifies the death itself as a guy in a black hood with a sickle in his hand.

John Donne wrote this poem in such a manner that it appears as a direct confrontation between the Death personified and the poet. The readers are just eavesdropping on this interesting conversation.

Line 3-4

For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow

Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

The poet confronts Death and tells Him that though Death considers Himself mighty with the power to kill people, this is false. He further humiliates Death and shows pity by addressing Him as ‘poor Death.’ Donne used the term ‘overthrow’ for killing. What he means is that Death feels that He revolted against the king Life and took Life’s empire. However, Donne says that the victims of Death don’t actually die, nor Death can kill the poet. The first stanza ends here.

Line 5-6

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,

Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,

In the second stanza, the poet explains how Death is being fooled. John Donne introduces the philosophy and specifically the idea of Christian eternity which suggests that while Death thinks that He killed people, but it is just a way through which people pass through to a new eternal life. The poet says that while Death thinks that it killed people, He only induces rest and sleep for His victims who ultimately attain the new eternal life. It resembles the Hindu philosophy of the Eternal soul. Death is just a process through which a soul changes its cloth (body). The poet further ridicules Death by claiming that while He thinks he is causing suffering to His victims, He only brings, rest, sleep, comfort, and pleasure. The poet says that rest and sleep are the pictures of Death. Since both rest and sleep bring comfort, pleasure, and rejuvenation to a tired body, the poet says that Death only brings pleasure to a person when Death meets him.

Comparing Death with sleep or eternal rest is a classical Christian metaphor that has been used many times. For example, Saint Augustine wrote that he won’t know what rest is really like until he rests with God in Heaven. As a matter of fact, the poem is convincing the readers that they should not be afraid of death. Let us suppose a person is afraid of trying sky-diving, so his friends may suggest to him that there is nothing to worry about as sky-diving is just similar to a super-fun rollercoaster ride. In the same manner, the poet is suggesting that Death is nothing but sleep and eternal rest that brings ultimate pleasure.

Line 7-8

And soonest our best men with thee do go,

Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.

The poet says that the best men or the most cherished persons follow Death as they need to rest their bones and free their souls from worldly pain and sufferings. Donne used the word ‘delivery’ to express freedom as it offers the idea of rebirth or new life after death. Thus he brings upon the idea of Christian Afterlife here.

These lines can be understood by considering the situation of Army men. Only a few people chose to be a soldier as they are ready to go to war and die. Donne declares that the best men volunteer themselves to meet the Death as they know they will be having greater pleasure in the Afterlife. This may remind you of the idea of Jehad or Crusades.

Line 9-10

Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,

In Petrarchan sonnets, poets often offer a sharp U-turn from the tone of previous stanzas, and here too, the poet changes his tone. In the second stanza, the poet was actually praising death, suggesting that He offer pleasure, rest, and peace for the best men. The poet begins attacking Death again in the third stanza and calls Him a slave.

The third stanza begins with the explanation of the real position of Mr. Death in the poet’s eyes. The poet says to Death that He is not in a commanding position, rather, he is just a minion, a slave to other forces. The poet names those forces as Fate, Chance, kings, and Desperate Men. What the poet means is that Death cannot decide whom to offer death (or rest and sleep in eyes of the poet) as this is decided by the fate of a person, or a person dies by chance.

Fate and Chance are exactly opposing concepts. Fate means determinism, nobody can escape fate. However, Chance is totally indeterministic. Chance means luck, the idea that things or events can happen out of turn or for no particular reason.

Another force that the poet mentions are the Kings who rule death sentences. The fourth force mentioned is ‘Desperate Men’, people willing to end themselves. They can be failure men with suicidal tendencies, or highly spiritual men ready to give up their bodies to meet God in the afterlife. Donne suggests that such desperate suicidal men are losers. In the 10^th line, he further castigates Death and claims that Death has foolish friends who indulge in drugs, poison, war, and sickness. Again, Donne personified Poison, War, and Sickness as friends of Mr. Death. The common thing in poison, war, and sickness or pandemic is that all these three things kill many people and thus accompany Death.

Line 11-12

And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well

And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?

John Donne compared death with rest and sleep in lines 5-6 and suggested that Death is even better than sleep as it offers the pleasure of Afterlife. Here, the poet takes a U-turn and says that Death is not at all required. The poet suggests that one doesn’t need to die to attain rest and sound sleep for their body and soul. He may simply use poppy (opium) or magic charms (drugs) to have a sound sleep.

In lines 5-6, the poet was actually praising Death as it offers pleasurable Afterlife. But here, the poet is engaged in insulting Death. The poet is willing to disregard the happiness of Afterlife as sound sleep can also be attained through opium and poppy makes people feel ecstasy or extreme happiness too. The poet suggests that poppy or magic charms can offer more happiness and better sleep than Death. The poet uses the word ‘stroke’ which can either be a gentle stroke like that of patting some child’s head in praise and affection, or it can be a brutal violent stroke of a sword, like that of a stroke by a soldier against an enemy soldier. The poet then questions Death why it feels so proud and swells in pride when it is clear that poppy and magic charms can do a much better job? The third stanza ends with this rhetorical question.

Line 13-14

One short sleep past, we wake eternally

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

In the last stanza, that is, in lines 13-14, the poet again brings upon the Christian idea of death. According to Christian theology, death is just like a long slumber. When a person dies, he enters in deep sleep, and just before the end of the world, that is on Judgement Day, Christians believe that Christ will wake up all and will take all good souls to Heaven where they all will enjoy eternal life. In a way, the poet accepts Death and suggests that it is nothing but a deep slumber that will appear very short when he will be raised by Jesus at the end of the world. When Apocalypse happens, Jesus takes all good souls to Heaven to enjoy eternal life and hence, there isn’t any more death in Heaven. Thus, the poet offers his final verdict, ‘Death thou shalt die.’

This is it for today. We will discuss another important work by John Donne in the next video. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and regards.

The Canonization by John Donne | Summary, Analysis, Explanation

 The Canonization by John Donne | Summary, Analysis, Explanation

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Canonization is one of the most talked-about love poems by John Donne which was first published in 1633 in the first edition of his collection Songs and Sonnets. John Donne was the pioneer Metaphysical Poet who made rich use of metaphors, conceit, paradoxes, ambiguity, and wordplay in his poems. Generally, metaphysical poets ridiculed and parodied love, especially platonic love. In this poem, however, John Donne praises his and his beloved’s love and compares it with worship. He mentions the two lovers as saints and martyrs of love. The poet addresses a friend in this poem who objects to his love affair with his beloved. John Donne was in love with Anne Moore and later married him. She was his employer’s daughter and this relationship harmed his career and brought disrepute and poverty to him but the two remained together in love, till the death of Anne Moore.

Structure of The Canonization

The poem has 45 lines in 5 stanzas. Each stanza has 9 lines. The first line of each stanza begins with the word ‘Love.’ and the last line of each stanza ends with ‘Love.’ All nine lines of each stanza are metered in iambic lines with a constant pattern. The first, third, fourth, and seventh lines of each stanza are in Pentameter, the second, fifth, sixth, and eighth lines follow tetrameter, while the last, ninth line is in trimeter. So, the metric stress pattern of each stanza is 545544543. The rhyming scheme of the poem is ABBACCCAA. The tone of the poem is sardonic, forceful, witty, and serious. The term canonization refers to the Christian process by which people are induced into sainthood. The poet suggests that he and his beloved are now saints of love.

Summary of the Canonization

For God’s sake hold your tongue, and let me, love,
Or chide my palsy, or my gout,
My five gray hairs, or ruined fortune flout,
With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve,
Take you a course, get you a place,
Observe his honor, or his grace,
Or the king’s real, or his stampèd face
Contemplate; what you will, approve,
So you will let me love.

The poem begins with ‘For God’s sake’ which sets the tone of the poem as forceful, suggestive, and witty.

The poet is addressing an intruding friend or well-wisher who is objecting to his love relationship with his beloved. Apparently, his friend is complaining that the poet’s love affair is costing him his health and career. The poet is in a peevish mood and he retorts to the intruder by saying that he should do some appropriate work rather than objecting and keeping a check on him and his lover. He says that the intruder may make fun of his deteriorating health conditions and poverty, but he should not criticize his tendency to love. The poet then suggests some ways through which his friend may remain busy instead of disturbing him and objecting against his love affair. He says that the intruder may pursue some studies to improve his mind, or he may engage in making his own wealth. The intruder may get a job and a high place in society. The poet says that his friend may join the court and be acquainted with the King where he will either come to know the real face of the king, or he will get too many coins with the king’s face stamped on them. He then suggests his friend contemplate on his future action and choose one so that he may not disturb and object to the poet’s love again.

Alas, alas, who’s injured by my love?
What merchant’s ships have my sighs drowned?
Who says my tears have overflowed his ground?
When did my colds a forward spring remove?
When did the heats which my veins fill
Add one more to the plaguy bill?
Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still
Litigious men, which quarrels move,
Though she and I do love.

In the second stanza, the poet raises some rhetorical questions to the intruder to prove that his love affair is not harming anyone, causing no disturbance to anyone. He asks, who is injured by my love? Has my love affair caused any ship to drown? Do my tears in love cause a flood on the ground? Obviously, it is outrageous to think that love will cause such disasters. He further asks, has the warmth raised by love in his blood ever caused anyone's death plague? Or, does the cold inflicted by his lover on his body forces spring to go away soon?

After putting forth these four rhetorical questions, the poet claims that though soldiers continue to fight in battles, dying and killing each other, though the lawyers continue to debate their litigations, proving a white as black and black as white, he and his beloved engage in love and their love doesn’t inflict anyone as the world continues turning as it always has. Everything is going as it is supposed to while he and his beloved continue to love. In this stanza, John Donne is parodying the professions of soldiers and litigators/lawyers.

Call us what you will, we are made such by love;
Call her one, me another fly,
We’re tapers too, and at our own cost die,
And we in us find the eagle and the dove.
The phœnix riddle hath more wit
By us; we two being one, are it.
So, to one neutral thing both sexes fit.
We die and rise the same, and prove
Mysterious by this love.

In the third stanza, the poet says that his intruding friend may call him and his lover whatever he likes. Others may criticize them in whatever way they want as it doesn’t bother him or his lover. The two lovers are confident of what they are and they appreciate each other. The poet compares himself and his lover as two flies circling around the candles that may burn and kill them. Donne suggests that existence is short and he and his lover are content with it. He then compares themselves as tapers or candles. The burning of the candles causes their own demise and the poet realizes it. He says that the two lovers can be compared as an Eagle and Dove as both of them are violent and gentle and prey on each other in love. This offers religious imagery too as according to Renaissance idea, Eagle flies in the sky above the earth in heaven while the Dove transcends the skies to reach heaven. He further offers a mythological comparison and suggests that he and his lover have become one and in this union, they have become unsexed, both are one. While they appear two bodies, they are one as when together, they become neutrally fit. The poet again is indicating Christianity as they say in Christ, there is no male or female. He further brings the mystery of phoenix and suggests that as united lovers, he and his beloved are like phoenix, whose existence may appear short but they rise again from the dead and attain eternity.

Here John Donne uses conceit as he compares his physical love with platonic eternal love. Also, Donne has begun shaping the canonization of lovers.

We can die by it, if not live by love,
And if unfit for tombs and hearse
Our legend be, it will be fit for verse;
And if no piece of chronicle we prove,
We’ll build in sonnets pretty rooms;
As well a well-wrought urn becomes
The greatest ashes, as half-acre tombs,
And by these hymns, all shall approve
Us canonized for Love.

In the fourth stanza, the poet expresses the importance of himself and his beloved. He says that if life is too difficult for them as lovers, they are ready to face death but won’t part away. The poet further accepts that after their death, they may not be considered worthy by the worldly people and may fail to get a mention in books of History (chronicles). They may also not get grand tombs and legendry fables in their memories. Yet, they will be remembered in love sonnets. The poet accepts that their life is not as fit and grand as those of great ones who end up in “well-wrought urn’ and ‘half-acre tombs,’ but love sonnets and hymns will be written for them. Those love songs, sonnets, and hymns will offer them a greater audience and the couple will be canonized for love in this manner. The phrase ‘well-wrought urn’ later became famous when John Keats wrote his poem ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn.’

And thus invoke us: “You, whom reverend love
Made one another’s hermitage;
You, to whom love was peace, that now is rage;
Who did the whole world’s soul contract, and drove
Into the glasses of your eyes
(So made such mirrors, and such spies,
That they did all to you epitomize)
Countries, towns, courts: beg from above
A pattern of your love!”

In the fifth stanza, the poet offers future prospects that he and his beloved will attain sainthood of love. People of the future generations will remember and invoke them as saints and say that you made each other your pilgrimage as for each of you, the other was a complete world. For others, love may appear as a furious passion but for these saints of love, it brought peace and bliss. As saints of love, you did the miracle of contracting the whole world in each other’s eyes. Observing the world from each other’s perspectives offered you a greater understanding of the world and life. The future generation will epitomize this loving couple, the poet and his beloved. People across countries, towns, and courts will pray to God to enable them to love just like the poet and his beloved does. The poet says that they are setting a pattern of love that the whole world can follow.

This is a metaphysical poem in which John Donne employed witty conceit. He compares the honest physical love between him and his beloved with the canonization of unworldly saints. The poem is full of knowledge and shows the intellect of the poet as he mentions various interesting mythical comparisons. John Donne also offers his theory of sexual metaphysics which suggests that a real and complete relationship between a man and a woman unsex them and make them one.

This is it for today. We will bring forth a summary and explanation of another interesting Metaphysical poem by John Donne. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!