Metaphysical Poetry Flashcards
Me it suck’d first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea are two bloods mingled bee;
Donne uses the conceit (typical of metaphysical poetry) of a flea to represent the physical unity of two people. It serves as the male speaker’s persuasive device to get his lover to sleep with him: he trivialises the act of intercourse by likening the ‘mingling’ of their blood in the flea to the ‘mingling’ of their bodies.
O, my America, my Newfoundland, My kingdom
In Elegy XX: To his mistress going to bed, Donne represents her body as something to be conquered, though as opposed to the possible interpretation of objectifying women, I would instead argue he is giving her elevated value by comparing her to the worth of an entire continent, as well as displaying an inclination of possessive affection through the final phrase of “My kingdom”. The idea of empire and conquest, as well as the parallel between life and land, was a common feature of metaphysical poetry.
Unruly sun
In his poem ‘The Sun Rising’ Donne personifies the ‘sun’ in order to attack it for forcing the lovers to separate at daybreak. He labels it ‘unruly’ which is ironic as the sun is something unfailingly regular.
As souls unbodied, bodies unclothed must be
To taste whole joys
Later in Elegy XX, Donne cleverly makes subtle reference to what seems the lesser priority of emotional/spiritual love in the presence of the physical desire of his Mistress. The sexuality is clearly stated by the desire to unclothe her fully to “taste whole joys”, therefore confirming the influence of lust on his desires.
However, the mention of an unbodied soul within the same context suggests he is at least conscious of, if not intending to pursue her emotional side of love (or possibly emotional lust too). The idea of “to taste whole joys” with regard to the spiritual, emotional side of love suddenly becomes incredibly heartfelt: he wants to share and experience inner self and with it, the vulnerability that comes from exposing yourself, as she would her body.
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is;
…
And cloysterd in these living walls of Jet.
Donne uses religious language to encourage his lover to succumb in ‘The Flea’. He suggests that they have been ‘married’ within the flea so she needn’t have qualms about it being socially appropriate. He juxtaposes the earthly and the divine, likening their ‘bed’ to a ‘temple’ - the consummation of their ‘marriage’ would therefore be something holy. ‘Cloysterd’ is an ironic choice of religious language as buildings with ‘cloisters’ e.g. Monasteries, abbeys are places of chastity. Donne, however, makes ‘cloysterd’ sexual.
Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.
In ‘The Sun Rising’, Donne criticises the notion of time suggesting it’s subordinate in the presence of love. He uses meiosis (language to purposely diminish an idea): the ‘rags’ of time suggest it is something to be casually thrown away. This couplet, part of a regular rhyme scheme, gives the poem a song-like nature; it could be read as a parody of an ‘aubade’ as the lovers refuse to separate at morning.
She’s all states, and all princes I;
Nothing else is;
In these two lines in Donne’s ‘The Sun Rising’ the syntax reflects the speaker’s feelings about his relationship: the pronouns ‘She’ and ‘I’ are placed at the start and end of the line, literally encompassing it, suggesting that all the power of the world - ‘all states, and all princes’ - is encompassed in the lovers’ relationship. The shortest line of the poem, ‘Nothing else is’, implies their love is all-consuming; nothing else exists in their separate world.
