365betÓéÀÖ

G. SOMASESHU

John Donne was born in 157l. His father was a prosperous citizen of London. Donne was educated as Catholic and continued as one till 1598. Donne took his Law Degree from Lincoln’s Inn in 1592. Donne was known in London as “a great visitor of ladies, a great frequenter of plays, a great writer of conceited verses�. He travelled abroad in 1590’s as an ad­venturer in Essex’s expedition to Cadiz (1596) and the Azores (1598). Most of the satires and elegies were written during this time. Donne’s career as Private Secretary to Lord Keeper Eger­ton came to a disastrous end when he eloped with Anne More (Niece of Eger­ton’s second wife) in 1601 and mar­ried her. For the next ten years he lived in poverty depending on others for livelihood. In 1615 he became Reader in Divinity at Lincoln’s Inn and later Dean of St. Pauls in 1621. “Holy Sonnets� and “Divine Poems� belong to this period.

In his love poetry. John Donne turns away from decorative use of mytheology, melodious fluency of verse and Petrarchan conventions. “He analysed the experience of love in a variety of moods ranging from cynical sensuality to a profound sense of un­ion - but always with the same realis­tic force and eager play of mind� (R.G. Cox). John Dryden, the famous 17th century poet and critic meant the same when he wrote. “Donne affects metaphysics not only in his satires but in his amorous verses�. The religious poetry of Donne shows the same qualities as those of his other works: the dramatic tone, the play of speech rhythms, the dialectical subtlety, the startling imagery drawn from common life or from intellectual pursuits and psychological observation.

According to Courthope there is a perpetual flux in Donne’s poetry.

“Asa lover Donne is in turn the sensualist and the cynic, passion’s slave and passion’s critic, the meta­physical platonist and the devoted husband�.

Above all, the joy of mutual love and contented passion is the keynote of Donne’s love poems. This joy is seen in love poems of Sappho, Catallus and Bums.

As for style and verse, Donne’s rhythms and diction convey the sur­prising directness of the speaking voice. Donne was a frequenter of plays and dramatic verse has exercised much influence over him.

Though Ben Jonson criticised “Donne deserved hanging for not keep­ing accents�. Donne’s rugged metre reflects the volcanic eruption of his feelings.

“Intensity is the keynote of Donne’s career� (Fausset)

To quote from RG. Cox again,

“His way of using language is remarkably close to Shakespeare’s in directness and concreteness of sug­gestion�.

The elegies written by Donne are only elegies in name but not in con­tent. Donne seemed to have written these at different periods of life. Vari­ety and intensity of feeling coupled with wit and satire make these elegies quite interesting and readable too. The conversational tone with dramatic style reminds one of Shakespeare’s sonnets. But the poetic fabric of Donne is more varied and broader with sharper wit and satire, though not so lofty as Shakespearean fancy. These elegies bring before our eyes a veri­table love-gallery of pictures showing the poet in various moods. In use of vituperative and caustic language none comes so near to Donne as the Augustan poets like Dryden and Pope, though they tried to reduce the effect by use of polished, artificial language. Another similarity between Donne and Augustan poets is that both used heroic couplet, a verse form suitable for wit and satire. Donne showed his originality in handling this verse form by using run-on method, variety in stress and pause and by use of dex­trous rhyme to break the monotony and stiffness of couplet. The Augustan poets appreciated Donne for his argu­mentative skill and use of wit. The use of conceits (far-fetched comparisons) although in vogue in Elizabethan verse, was further given a wider range and variety in the verse of Donne and other metaphysical poets.

The first elegy “Jealousy� por­trays the picture of a woman who, under the control of a watchful and jealous husband, suffers and wished his death. The poet comforts her say­ing that her husband’s jealousy is a warning to them and urges her to come to another house to pursue the game of love without any risk. He gives the analogy of people who dis­liked by their princes, exile themselves to pursue their business.

The Second elegy “The Anagram� in an antiromantic vein glorifies the benefits of having an ordinary mistress with no special or charming attrac­tions. She will be above the suspicion of all. All beauties in her exist but misplaced like letters in an Anagram. Her dusky face would guard her like the dirty trench around a city, her, love is more durable like rough cloth and leather worn by men for long journeys. This elegy reminds one of­ Shakespeare’s 130th sonnet “My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun� in which he described the dark lady, yet not in an exaggerated way as Donne has portrayed here. Jealousy of men was common recurring theme in Elizabethan poetry and dramas. Donne appears to have ridiculed such people with the suggestion that ugliness in ladies would ensure their chastity and would be free from sin of seducing others.

“Here needs no spies, nor eu­nuchs�.

Inconstancy of women is another oft-recurring theme in Elizabethan love poetry. Donne, in his third elegy “Change� flippantly defends women’s fickle-minded love in a sarcastic manner. The poet frankly compares women to birds and beasts which change their mates without discretion. Women are like flowing waters, sweet only when they are mobile in their love relationships. This elegy ends with a fine epigram.

“Change is the nursery
of music, joy, life and eternity�.

In the sixth elegy, the poet com­pares the inconstant mistress to a stream which tempted by a gaping bank swerves from its channel. He prefers hatred and disdain to love, to flout her inconstancy.

In the fifteenth elegy “The Ex­postulation�, the lover misled by his friend’s warning misunderstands the constancy of his mistress and puts a series of questions about the hypocriti­cal nature of women’s love. But later he answers himself that his mistress is quite exceptional. Now he directs his abuse against the treacherous fellow who betrayed “each simple word - we spake unto the cunning of the third�. The poet renews his love and concludes that love is� a treasure sweet which to defend is harder than to get�. “Though it is got by chance, it is kept by art�. The mutual faith is a must in the art of love.

Most of these elegies read like monologues, anticipating Browning’s, with argumentative skill and dramatic style. Lyrical element is not given undue emphasis. In the fourth elegy “The Perfume� he curses the perfume which betrayed his secret love affair with his beloved. In spite of his fa­ther’s watchful looks and mother’s searching observation and “the grim eight-foot high iron-bound serving man’s guard� he gave the slip. Yet the loud perfume betrayed his affair. He thinks it justified that even gods are pleased to see the perfume burnt well�. Finally he says that he is ready to give away all his perfumes to em­balm his beloved’s father’s corpse.

Donne, in some of his elegies, dwelt on the spiritual element in love which makes it noble and enduring. In his fifth elegy “His Picture�, the poet contrasts the physical beauty of the mistress with the rough, tanned, weather-beaten appearance of lover after his return from the voyage. Love based on judging mind is unchanged by outer modifications. The outer beauty which was “fair and delicate� is but the milk fit for only love’s child­ish state. In the IX elegy “The autumnal�. Donne describes the mature view of love undisturbed by overemotional lust of youth. The rip­ened love is “fold oft tried and ever new�. The physical changes in no way reduce the intensity of love. The wrinkles on the face are like trenches wherein love sits steadily like an anchorite. Mature love is like seasoned Wine without the risk of enraging blood. He alludes to the Perisan king Xerxes who loved a lady of age despite her barrenness. Yet women of old age� living Death’s heads� are not liked by the poet.

In this tenth elegy “The Dream� Donne contrasts the dreamy fulfilment of his love with the pains and tearful experiences of love in reality. His heart stamped with the image of his beloved is a medal too great for him to bear. In his sleep, with his senses locked up, he can escape from pain and taste “convenient and more proportional� joys. Yet those joys are dream-like and he prefers painful reality and be mad with love than an idiot without a heart.

Donne’s practical approach to love, unlike the other dreamy idealistic Elizabethans. reveals his maturity of vision and prudence. In this eight­eenth elegy “Love’s progress�, he frankly says that one should not waste too much time in contemplation of love, without having a definite goal or object. He advises lovers to prefer “one woman first and one thing in her�. People go wrong when they try to find ethereal virtues in a woman. Love is a subterranean God dwelling with Pluto (God of Wealth staying in nether world). Lovers who think of soul and sublime ideals meet with disappoint­ment in their love affairs. So he ad­vises lovers to start their love’s journey from the foot to realise the real worth of love. If not, they will be like the fool who sold meat for a fake coin deceived by its outward glitter.

The sixteenth elegy “On his mis­tress� again shows his thoughtful approach to love. He does not like to run away with his mistress in order to just escape from the wrath of his rivals, spies and that of his beloved’s father, since others will easily detect the womanly grace of his mistress even if she disguises herself as a boy and accompanies the lover. In a prac­tical manner he says that love has no miraculous powers to pacify the dan­gers of his journey except console one with the feeling that “absent lovers one in the other be�. So he advises his mistress to keep her temper cool and wish him happiness. “Think it enough for me to have had thy love�.

Donne exhibits his vituperative power as well in some of his elegies. The thirteenth elegy “Julia� is a powerful verbal attack on an envious vicious lady. Donne uses classical allusions to portray the dreadful picture with the eyes of Chymera tongued like a night-crow with the foul breath of Tenarus, with the mind of Orcus filled with legions of mischiefs and with corrupt thoughts like atoms in the sun lying in her bosom for creation. The eighth elegy “The Comparison� also shows the abusive power of a poet contrasting the pure beauty of his mistress with the odious appearance of an unworthy rival lover. Here Donne anticipates the vituperative language of later Augustan poets who heaped abuse on their rivals in the form of these, compact couplets.

The eleventh elegy “The Brace­let� again resembles Pope’s well known poem� The Rape of the Lock�, where Donne displays his imaginative power and vigorous style. He implores his mistress not to curse the twelve guard­ian angels of his love, enraged by the loss of her precious bracelet. He ridi­cules the worthlessness of the golden French and Spanish coins which were widely circulated through different Catholic nations and later became worn out like many angled figures in the book of some great conjurer. He does not care even if the bracelet is melted along with the twelve figures of angels engraved on it just for the sake of worthless gold. He heaps curses and abuse on the person who stole it and warns him to surrender the booty and feel repentance “But I forgive; repent thee honest man, Gold is restorative, restore it then�.

If the twelfth elegy “His parting from her� a lover’s agony combined with practical reason at the parting from his mistress is vividly described. He calls for the dark night to envelop him. He blames love who finds cruel pleasure in inflicting punishment on him and on his dove-like innocent mistress. Later he says that destiny cannot separate love from their hearts.

“Our souls are tied
And we can love by letters still and gifts
And thoughts and dreams: Love never wanteth shifts�.

All seasons and elements remind him of his mistress� love. To his beloved, he gives the parting advice thus:

“And dearest friend, since we must part, drown night with hope of day, burthens well born are light�.

Finally he declares that the lov­ers are base fortune’s enemies and they live by their constancy.

Later Donne used the same theme of parting, in love lyrics “A valediction forbidding mourning� and “Sweetest love I do not go�, of course, with a different approach.

The nineteenth elegy “Going to bed� is the most sensual poem ever written by Donne. To him the explora­tion of the naked beauty of his mis­tress is as thrilling as discovering a new world.

“How blest I am in this discov­ering thee
To enter in these bonds is to be free�.

He justifies the nakedness as the source of all natural joy. Outer orna­ments are only like golden balls thrown by Atlanta to divert the atten­tion of base-minded people.

“Full nakedness! All joys are due to thee
As souls unbodied, bodies un­clothed must be
To taste whole joys�.
The twentieth elegy “Love’s War� compares the art of winning love to that of capturing a city. The poet was not satisfied by his visits to other countries like France, Spain, Ireland and Flanders which were steeped in hatred, greed, rebellion etc. Wars re­sult only in loss of life, property and agony.
“Long voyages are long con­sumptions
And ships are carts for execu­tions�.

Soldiers drudged like slaves without any freedom. In the war of love, the poet experiences freedom and there is no dread of weapons. Instead of killing beings, he creates them.

“There men kill men; we will make one by and by�.
“Thy heart thy ransom is; take mine for me�.

Thus these elegies reveal a var­ied gamut of love with a wide range of emotions expressed in an unconventional and heart-moving dramatic style. No doubt the poet behind these lines must be an interesting and passionate personality to whom “All love is wonder� and who in his later life transformed his intensity of love into earnest devotion of God in his “Holy Sonnets�.

Bibliography

1. Donne Poetical Works, edited by Sir Herbert Grierson (Oxford University Press).
2. �The poem of John Donne� by R. G. Cox from �The Pelican Guide to English Literature�. No. 3.
3. “Lives of poets� by Louis Unter­meyer.
4. “John Donne� by A.N. Dwivedi.