Download Why should they not alike in all parts touch?

John Donne (1572-1631)
“Tensions of the Microcosm: Love, Desire,
Women, and Donnean Transcendence”
Donne both challenges and advances popular
Neoplatonic ideals of his time. Many writers of this
age adapted Petrarch’s neoplatonism. Donne’s
frequent presentation of lovers’ world as microcosm
that represents the universe illustrates his
neoplatonism. Yet he insists upon the role of the
body and rails against the lovers inability to escape
worldly concerns.
Neoplatonism: a school of thought that originated in
the third century, persisted until the fifth century, and
was revived during the Renaissance. Renaissance
thinkers were particularly interested in the
Neoplatonic idea that the material world is a
reflection of and a path to the spiritual world. One of
the ways that Donne departs from this school of
thought is in his insistence upon the ongoing
importance of the body, even after higher realms
have been accessed through it.
Platonic Love: According to Alcibiades in Plato’s
Symposium, “those who are in love are searching for
something that they do not yet understand; whether
they realize it or not, they seek the eternal possession
of the good [the absolute truth].” The best kind of
love eventually leads to the Form of Beauty. The
lover gains access to the form through ascending
stages, beginning with an attraction to the beauty of
the lover’s body, moving to the appreciation of the
beauty of all bodies, the beauty of the human soul,
human customs and epistemologies, and culminating
in the discovering of the eternal and changeless Form
of Beauty itself.
In Donne’s work, the Absolute, which he strives to
access, takes the form of transcendent union with a
lover and God. The similarities in the language he
uses to address a lover and God are one of the many
connections between his secular and religious work.
Throughout, he seeks greater meaning and unity,
while questioning the possibility of fully realizing
this quest, as well as conventional notions of
transcendence.
Because of his concern with the spiritual realm, and
his desire to gain access to it, Donne has been termed
the preeminent metaphysical poet. John Dryden first
applied the term to Donne; Samuel Johnson later
used it to describe a group of seventeenth-century
poets, including Donne, George Herbert, and Andrew
Marvell (among others).
Metaphysical poetry: “A term that can be applied to
any poetry that deals with philosophical or spiritual
matters” (Bedford, 213).
As today’s discussion of Donne’s poetry will
illustrate, simply labeling Donne a metaphysical poet
bypasses his abiding concern with the material world.
Donne cannot be so easily or consistently pinned
down.
Let’s begin with one of Donne’s most famous poems.
The Flea
Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is;
Me it sucked first, and now it sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;
Thou know’st that this cannot be said
5
A sin, or shame, or loss of maidenhead,
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pampered swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more than we would do.
Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, any more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed and marriage temple is;
Though parents grudge, and you, we are met,
And cloistered in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that, self-murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.
Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled they nail in blood of innoncence?
Wherein could this flea guilty be,
Except in that drop which it sucked from thee?
Yet thou triumph’st, and say’st that thou
Find’st not thy self nor me the weaker now;
‘Tis true; then learn how false fears be:
Just so much honor, when thou yield’st to me,
Will waste, as this flea’s life took from thee.
10
15
20
25
What stops the lovers from acting as the flea does?
What is the significance of the microcosm in this
poem, given that it takes the form of a flea?
-Draws on European convention, inspired by Ovid:
the lover envies the flee for its access to his lover’s
body. Donne responds to the call to rival the cultural
achievements of ancient writers: he surpasses Ovid
with his sexual descriptions.
-It has been argued that in the third line, Donne plays
on the confusion of ‘f’s and ‘s’s in early modern
texts.
-Great Chain of Being
-Nature used as counter for social conventions.
The Sun Rising
Busy old fool, unruly sun,
Why dost thou thus
Through windows and through curtains call on us?
Must to thy motions lovers’ seasons run?
Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide
Late schoolboys and sour prentices,
Go tell court huntsmen and the king will ride,
Call country ants to harvest offices;
Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.
Thy beams, so reverend and strong
Why shouldst thou think?
I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink,
But that I would not lose her sight so long;
If her eyes have not blinded thine,
Look, and tommorow late, tell me,
Whether both th’ Indias of spice and mine
Be where thou leftst them, or lie here with me.
Ask for those kings whom thou saw’st yesterday,
And thou shall hear, All here in one bed lay.
She is all states, and all princes I,
Nothing else is.
Princes do but play us; compared to this,
All honor’s mimic, all wealth alchemy.
Thou, sun, art half as happy as we,
In that the world’s contracted thus;
Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be
To warm the world, that’s done in warming us.
Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;
This bed thy center is, these walls thy sphere.
-anti-Platonic address of the sun?
-Blend of disdain for the world, its conventions, and
relations of power, and the desire to achieve the
conquest of all through sexual union.
-absorption of the intrusive outside world into the
microcosm as the type of the universe.
Elegy 19. To His Mistress Going to Bed
Come, Madam, come, all rest my powers defy,
Until I labor, I in labor lie.
The foe ofttimes having the foe in sight,
Is tired with standing though he never fight.
Off with that girdle, like heaven’s zone glistering, 5
But a far fairer world encompassing.
Unpin that spangled breastplate which you wear
That th’ eyes of busy fools may be stopped there.
Unlace yourself, for that harmonious chime
Tells me from you that it is bed-time.
10
Off with that happy busk, which I envy,
That still can be and still can stand so nigh.
Your gown going off, such beauteous state reveals
As when from flowery meads th’ hill’s shadow steals.
Off with that wiry coronet and show
15
The hairy diadem which on you doth grow;
-How would you describe Donne’s representation of
women here?
-How does Donne characterize the romantic/sexual
relationship between lovers in this poem thus far?
Now off with those shoes, and then safely tread
In this love’s hallowed temple, this soft bed.
In such white robes, heaven’s angles used to be
Received by men; thou, angel, bring’st with thee
A heaven like Mahomet’s paradise; and though
Ill spirits walk in white, we easily know
By this these angels from an evil spirte,
Those set our hairs, but these our flesh upright.
20
-Religious imagery
-Link between a lovers beauty and the higher, divine
realm of the heavens
-Good versus evil
License my roving hands, and let them go
25
Before, behind, between, above, below.
O my America! my new-found-land,
My kingdom, safeliest when with one man manned,
My mine of precious stones, my empery,
How blest am I in this discovering of thee!
30
To enter in these bonds is to be free;
There where my hand is set, my seal shall be.
-Language of exploration.
-Critics have linked his desire to command the world
to his discomfort with serving a female monarch in a
patriarchal society.
-Link to drawing of “America”
America, ca. 1600 engraving by Theodore Galle after a drawing by Jan van Straet ca.
1575.
Full nakedness! All joys are due to thee.
As souls unbodied, bodies unclothed must be,
To taste whole joys. Gems which you women use
Are like Atalanta’s balls, cast in men’s views,
That when a fool’s eye lighteth on a gem,
His earthly soul may covet theirs, not them.
35
-Correlation between the body and spirit: one reflects
the other.
Like pictures, or like books’ gay coverings, made
For laymen, are all women thus arrayed;
40
Themselves are mystic books, which only we
(Whom their imputed grace will dignify)
Must see revealed. Then since that I may know,
As liberally as to a midwife show
Thyself: cast all, yea, this white linen hence,
45
Here is no penance, much less innocence.
To teach thee, I am naked first; why then
What need’st thou have more covering than a man?
-Depictions of women: women linked to divine truth,
i.e., “the Word,” men as the “elect” of a beautiful
woman, women as revealers of mysteries.
Remember this language when you are reading
Donne’s overtly religious writing.
-The way we read this passage depends on the
version of the poem before you. How does the
situation change if line 46 reads as “There is no
penance due to innocence”?
-Instability of manuscript. May be Donne’s own
variation, designed to make the poem less
scandalous.
-Misogeny of the final lines.
More misogeny:
Hope not for mind in women; at their best
Sweetness and wit, they are but mummy, possessed.
(“Love’s Alchemy,” ll. 23-24)
Many have dismissed Donne as a misogynist but,
again, he cannot be so easily categorized. Consider
the following:
So, to one neutral thing both sexes fit.
We die and rise the same, and prove
Mysterious by this love.
(“The Canonization,” ll. 25-27).
Donne ultimately reflects and rejects the popular
gender stereotypes of his age.
Consider “Sappho and Philaenis,” the first “lesbian”
love poem written in English. Sappho addresses her
missing lover, Philaenis.
Where is that holy fire, which verse is said
To have? Is that enchanting fire decayed?
Verse, that draws Nature’s works, from Nature’s law,
Thee, her best work, to her work cannot draw.
Have my tears quenched my old poetic fire;
5
Why quenched they not as well, that of desire?
Thoughts, my mind’s creatures, often are with thee,
But I, their maker, want their liberty.
-Adaptation of conventions: calling upon a Muse, a
lover in despair, addressing a lost love.
-Consider Sidney’s The Defense of Poesy,
particularly his view that the poet does not merely
imitate or copy Nature but goes beyond it.
-The speaker is mentally imprisoned by her lover.
Only thine image in my heart doth sit,
But that is wax, and fire environs it.
10
My fires have driven, thine have drawn it hence;
And I am robbed of picture, heart, and sense.
Dwells within me still mine irksome memory,
Which both to keep and lose, grieves equally.
That tells me how fair thou art; thou art so fair,
15
As gods, when gods to thee compare,
Are graced thereby; and to make blind men see,
What good things are if we say they are like to thee.
For, if we justly call each silly man
A little world, what shall we call thee then?
20
-The speaker measures her lovers’ beauty according
to her own suffering. (compare to Petrarch’s chaste
woman)
-Neoplatonism on its head: the lover’s beauty does
not reflect that of the heavenly realm but surpasses it.
At the same time, the lover exceeds ordinary men.
Where does she fit in the order of things?
Thou are not soft, and clear, and straight, and fair,
As down, as stars, cedars, and lilies are,
But thy right hand, and cheek, and eye.
(ll. 21-24)
-Refuses the metaphorical language of Petrarchan
love sonnets. The beauty of the body cannot be
enhanced by art/metaphor.
Such was my Phao awhile, but shall be never,
As thou wast, art, and, oh, mayst thou be ever.
Here lovers swear in their idolatry,
That I am such; but grief discolors me.
And yet I grieve the less, lest grief remove
My beauty, and make me unworthy of the love.
Plays some soft boy with thee, oh there wants yet
A mutual feeling which should sweeten it.
His chin, a thorny hairy unevenness
Doth threaten, and some daily change possess.
25
30
-Consider this passage in relation to the love triangles
we saw in Shakespeare’s sonnets on Wednesday.
How does the dramatic situation here differ? How
does the speaker describe the relationship between
men and women? What is the problem?
Thy body is a natural paradise,
In whose self, unmanured, all pleasure lies,
Nor needs perfection, why shouldst thou then
Admit the tillage of a harsh rough man?
35
-Rejection of social conventions: heterosexuality, sex
for procreation, marriage.
-Line 35: paradise is accessible on earth, through the
body.
Men leave behind them that which their sin shows,
And are as thieves traced, which rob when it snows.
But of our dalliance no more signs there are,
Than fishes leave in streams, or birds in air.
And between us all sweetness may be had;
All, all that Nature yields, or Art can add.
40
-Purity/Naturalness of female love
-Men associated with the taintedness of worldly cares
-Even the male power of the pen, e.g., Donne’s
“masculine persuasive force” (“Elegy 16,” l. 4) is
powerless here
My two lips, eyes, thighs, differ from thy two,
But so, as thine from one another do;
And, oh, no more; the likeness being such,
45
Why should they not alike in all parts touch?
Hand to strange hand, lip to lip none denies;
Why should they breast to breast, or thighs to thighs?
50
Likeness begets such strange self-flattery,
That touching myself, all seems done to thee.
Myself I embrace, and mine own hands I kiss,
And amorously thank myself for this.
Me, in my glass, I call thee; but alas,
55
When I would kiss, tears dim mine eyes, and glass.
O cure this loving madness, and restore
Me to me; thee, my half, my all, my more.
-Even with physical distance, women have a natural
complimentary; they reflect another and
manifestations of the same whole—the very effect
Donne achieves between men and women in other
works through sexual union.
-Female masturbation: empowering of women or for
male gratification?
-Some critics decode these lines to infer that the
speaker is Donne, writing to his wife, Anne More.
How might this change our reading of the portrayal
of women in the poem?
-Donne’s transgendered identity. Iona Bell argues
that Donne anticipates the modern conception of
gender that posits sex differences as culturally
constructed and fluid rather than natural or universal.
So may thy cheeks’ red outwear scarlet dye,
And their white, whiteness of the galaxy,
So may thy mighty, amazing beauty move
Envy in all women, and in all men, love,
And so be change, and sickness, far from thee,
As thou by coming near, keep’st them from me.
60
-Again, these lines recall Shakespeare, only this time
it is the woman who attracts both men and women.
-Female speaker claims the power to immortalize by
the pen. (compare to Sidney, #45)
We are left with the palpable physicality of Donne’s
work, his insistence upon the relation of body and
soul rather the abandonment of the body once the
spiritual realm has been accessed.
A few final examples:
From “The Ecstasy”:
We then, who are this new soul, know
Of what we are composed and made,
For th’ atomies of which we grow
Are souls, whom no change can invade.
But O alas, so long, so far
Our bodies why do we forbear?
They are ours, though they are not we; we are
The intelligences, they the sphere.
(ll. 45-52)
So must pure lovers’ souls descend
T’ affections, and to faculties
Which sense may reach and apprehend;
Else a great prince in prison lies.
To our bodies turn we then, that so
Weak men on love revealed may look;
Love’s mysteries in souls do grow,
But yet the body is his book.
(ll. 65-72)
-challenges Petrachan/Neoplatonic body/soul
dualism.
Some criticism:
According to Judith Scherer Herz in “Reading and
Rereading Donne’s Poetry,” “The metaphysical
yearning to get beyond the body, for
transubstantiation, for becoming other, for becoming
the lover, is a powerful drive for Donne’s poetry, but
at least as important, indeed possibly more so, is the
sense of the physical in the metaphysical, the here
and now of the body. It is a poetry that takes the
pulse, that searches the heart as organ as much as
abstraction”
112).
(qtd. in The Cambridge Companion to Donne,