Critical Analysis of "The Indifferent" by John Donne
"The Indifferent" by John Donne is a relatively simple love poem in
comparison to his other, more complicated works. In this poem, "he presents a
lover who regards constancy as a 'vice' and promiscuity as the path of virtue
and good sense" (Hunt 3). Because of Donne's Christian background, this poem
was obviously meant to be a comical look at values that were opposite the ones
held by Christians. According to Clay Hunt, "['The Indifferent'] is probably
quite an early poem because of the simplicity and obviousness of its literary
methods, its untroubled gaiety, and its pose of libertinism, which all suggest
that Donne wrote [the poem] when he was a young man about town in Elizabethan
London" (1-2). The poem "mocks the Petrarchan doctrine of eternal faithfulness,
putting in its place the anti-morality which argues that constancy is a 'heresy'
and that 'Love's sweetest part' is 'variety'" (Cruttwell 153). The first two
stanzas of the poem seem to be the speaker talking to an audience of people, w
hile the last one looks back and refers to the first two stanzas as a "song."
The audience to which this poem was intended is very important because it can
drastically change the meaning of the poem, and has therefore been debated among
the critics. While most critics believe that the audience changes from men, to
women, then to a single woman, or something along those lines, Gregory Machacek
believes that the audience remains throughout the poem as "two women who have
discovered that they are both lovers of the speaker and have confronted him
concerning his infidelity" (1). His strongest argument is that when the
speaker says, "I can love her, and her, and you and you," he first points out
two random nearby women for "her, and her", then at the two that he is talking
to for "you and you."
The first stanza begins rather simply. Donne starts every line with
either "I can love" or "Her who." According to Hunt, the tone of the first
stanza goes from "weary and patient entreaty" to "a climax of irritation at the
end" (4) in the lines "I can love her, and her, and you and you / I can love any,
so she be not true." The first eight lines simply list opposite character types,
but the last two lines go to "her, and her, and you and you", then to any, "just
before Donne springs the sho...
... middle of paper ...
...hold.
This poem presents a speaker that holds morals opposite the ones
accepted by the greater part of society. While this poem is not incredibly
complicated, it is very interesting to see how Donne spends the first 25 lines
of the poem building up a convincing argument, then completely rebutting it in
the final two lines. He refers to promiscuity as a vice and constancy as a
virtue, using many sexual references to help illustrate his points. Donne
successfully creates a character in a simple love poem that believes that there
is nothing more to love than lust, and then uses his point of view to portray a
portrait of love that is completely opposite of what Donne wants the reader to
get from the poem.
Works Cited
Cruttwell, Patrick. "John Donne." Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800 24:
153.
Hunt, Clay. Donne's Poetry: Essays in Literary Analysis. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1954.
Machacek, Gregory. "Donne's The Indifferent." Explicator [CD-ROM] 53.4 (Summer
1995): p. 192, 3 p. Availible: Magazine Article Summaries Full Text Elite.
Item Number: 951025812.
McNees, Eleanor J. "John Donne." Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800 24:
207.
Sitting' on a bench at West Town Mall: He sat down in his overalls and asked me: You waiting' on a woman: nodded yeah and said how 'bout you: He said son since nineteen fifty-two I've been: Waiting' on a woman : When I picked her up for our first date: I told her I'd be there at eight: And she came down the stairs at eight-thirty: She said I'm sorry that I took so long : Didn't like a thing that I tried on: But let me tell you son she sure looked pretty: Yeah she'll take her time but I don't mind: Waiting' on a woman: He said the wedding took a year to plan: You talk about an anxious man, I was nervous: Waiting' on a woman: And then he nudged my arm like old men do: And said, I'll say this about the honeymoon, it was worth it: Waiting' on a woman: And I don't guess we've been anywhere: She hasn't made us late I swear: Sometimes she does it just 'cause she can do it: Boy it's just a fact of life: It'll be the same with your young wife: Might as well go on and get used to it: She'll take her time 'cause you don't mind: Waiting' on a woman: I've read somewhere statistics show: The man's always the first to go: And that makes sense 'cause I know she won't be ready: So when it finally comes my time: And I get to the other side: I’ll find myself a bench, if they've got any: I hope she takes her time, 'cause I don't mind: Waiting' on a woman: Honey, take your time, cause I don't mind: Waiting' on a w...
From the very first word of the poem, there is a command coming from an unnamed speaker. This establishes a sense of authority and gives the speaker a dominant position where they are dictating the poem to the reader rather than a collaborative interacti...
they are all rhyming at once it adds to the connection of three and is
This stanza begins the encounter. It sets the scene saying it is a lazy street. He begins to describe the woman's beauty, pointing out her hazel eyes and tiny feet.
last, which is four lines. In the first three stanzas, the poem is told in
At the very start of the poem, the speaker states firmly, “I want you to know one thing.” A descriptive and long stanza follows his brief statement. His third and fourth stanzas are similarly short being three and four lines long, respectively, and followed by another flowery stanza. His
* This stanza is much shorter than the other 2 and most of the word
Then she goes on to talk about her marital status in lines six and seven “ It belongs to a woman who sleeps in a twin bed even though
Though most of the poem is not dialogue, from what little speaking there is between the...
is married he tells her "Consider how natural and how plain it is, my dear, that
The woman, if only reading stanza one, would think her and the speaker are in total agreement. This idea, however, is fleeting as stanza two acts not only as a refutation for stanza one, but also as evidence for stanza three.... ... middle of paper ... ... The satire exists in the expectation that love has to occur before sex.
In relation to structure and style, the poem contains six stanzas of varying lengths. The first, second, and fourth stanzas
It consists of four stanzas, each a bit longer than the preceding one. Each stanza has it's own
...four stanzas in this poem with four lines in each stanza. This helps with the theme because they tell us the two people in life and it teaches us to be a happy go lucky and not an old grump. When you read this we hope that you will see the difference in these two characters, because some of them didn’t.