The Song

The Song

Many of John Donne's poems are on the subject of love and equally as

many on the subject of sex. As a love poet, especially when Donne

writes vividly on his wife he is very much concerned with his subject

(his wife) however he can appear selfish and cold in the more sexual

referenced poems. To fully make my point I have studied two poems,

which I believe show his character as less self-absorbed as in the

sexual referenced poems.

This poem is written for his wife and is essentially saying goodbye as

he is leaving her 'physically' but arguing that she mustn't be sad of

his departure and instead arguing that they are not really parting and

each verse is a different 'image' or argument for this.

I feel that this poem shows distinctly the love that John Donne had

for his wife. This poem, as well as having a very good use of words

and imagery shows to me true feelings of love for his wife. The lines

such as

But since that I

Must die at last, 'tis best

to use myself in jest

Thus by feign'd deaths to die

May be misinterpreted as selfish and self-obsessed comments. In

comforting his wife, who appears to be upset that he is leaving, and

concerned that he is going 'in weariness for thee', he says that as he

will die eventually anyway, it is good practice ('jest') being apart

for when they will be separated by death. Although it may appear that

he thinks that his wife loves him so much that she needs practice for

when he dies, in other words he is fond of himself and that his wife

loves him so much, he simply accepts that she loves him and is making

this point purely to reassure her and make amends for his reluctant

absence from her life.

Yesternight the sun went hence,

And yet is here today...

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This poem, he is trying to stop her from leaving by talking to her and

asking her. However, they both tell of their relationship and of their

love.

In answer to my beginning statement that I do not think that John

Donne is more concerned with writing about himself than with adoring

his mistress, I still believe that. In his sexual poems such as The

Apparition, The Flea and Going to bed he seems only concerned with sex

and himself and I would agree in those contexts he seems selfish and

uninterested in anything else the mistresses have to offer. However,

when he is a love poet and he is writing about and to his wife, he

still writes with the same wit and cleverness but the writing flows

and sounds so beautiful. He is very much concerned with his wife more

than himself as every image of her leaves us with an angelic image of

her and his love for her.