Department of English,
M.k.BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY
Name :- Upadhyay Mansi M.
Roll no :- 23
Enrollment no :- 2069108420190042
Email id :- mansiupadhyay06@gmail.com
Department :- M.A.
English department
(Head
of English Dept.M. K. Bhavnagar University)
Paper :- (1) (The Renaissance
Literature)
Assignment :- Analysis of Metaphysical Poetry “Sweetest love”.
1) Analysis of Metaphysical Poetry “sweetest
love”.
INTRODUSTION :-
John Donne born is a
1572-1631. Metaphysical poet written by john donne. The “metaphysical poetry” refers
to a specific period of time and a specific set of poets. In 17th-century
England, there did form a formal group, have been considered the metaphysical
poets. There are, in most lists, nine poets that belong, and they are as
follows: john donne, George Herbert, henry Vaughan,
Edward Herbert, Andrew marvel and Richard lovelace.
So, what is metaphysical poetry?
The common thread is that they contain metaphors that are highly conceptual in
nature. These metaphors are often tenuous, at best, in their comparisons of one
thing to another, but they can leave the reader feeling enlightened. This type
of metaphor is known as a metaphysical conceit. The way to tell a metaphysical
conceit from a regular metaphor is that they often exhibit an analytical tone,
contain double meanings, show logical reasoning, and have paradoxes, symbolism,
and wit. While one or two of these elements might be missing from any given
piece, there should be the majority of them present.
The metaphysical poetry ocalpies a unique place in the history of
English poetry. It is known as school of john donne. Because he was the proneer
who established this new trend of writing poetry it was not john donne who
namld it as metaphysical poetr who namld it as metaphysical poetry. This title
was given to the poetry of donne and his school by dr.samual Johnson it was in
the introduction to the life of alraram coutly that he used the term “the
metaphysical poetry” to signify the poetry of donne and this followers. When
sannual Johnson used this termit was in a negative sense but with the passing
of time the same terul became a term of appraisal for the poetry of donne and
his followers. Dr.johnson mentions that it’s a group of poets appeared at the
end of 17th century. She poets of which made a conscious attempt to
differ in their way of writing poetry. From other poets so basically this term
“metaphysical poery” has been evolved by sammul Johnson to identify the poetry
of school of donne.
John Donne’s poems:-
His
best known work of metaphysical poetry;
Weariness of thee,
Nor
in hope the world can
A fitter love for me;
But since that I must
die at
Last, ‘tis best
To use myself in jest
Thus by feigned death
to die.”
The magnificent lines touch our heart. Here love as both physical and
spiritual way to drown. The poet tells his beloved that he is not leaving
because he is tired of the relationship instead, he must go as a duty. After
all, the sun departs each night but returns every morning, and he has a much
shorter distance to travel. The third stanza suggests that his duty to leave is
unstoppable; man’s power is so feeble that good fortune cannot lengthen his
life, while bad fortune will shorten it. Indeed, fighting bad fortune only
shares one’s strength with it. As the beloved sighs and cries, the lover
complains that if he is really within her, she is the one letting him go
because he is part of her tears and breath. He asks her not to fear any evil
that may befall him while he is gone, and besides, they keep each other alive
in their hearts and therefore are never truly parted.
Here john donne writes about love, it’s not just love but ‘sweetest
love’, is a lyric made up of five stanzas each with the same rhyme scheme
ababcddc. Each stanza develops an aspect of the problem of separation from
one’s beloved.
The poet tells his beloved that he is not leaving because he is tired of
the relationship-instead he must go as a duty. After all, the sun departs each
night but returns every morning, and he a much shorter distance to travel. The
third stanza suggests that his duty to leave is unstoppable man’s power is so
feeble that good ortune cannot lengthen his life. While bad fortune will
shorten it. Indeed, fighting bad fortune only shares one’s strength with it. As
the beloved sighs and cries, the lover complains that if he is really within
her, she is the one letting him go because he is part of her tears and breath.
He asks her not to fear any evil that may befall him while he gone, and
besides, they keep each other alive in their hearts and therefore are never
truly parte.
“sweetest love” is a lyric made up of five stanzas each with the same
rhyme scheme each stanza develops an aspect of the problem of separation from
one’s beloved.
In
the first stanza the lover wards off any fear of a weakened love on his part.
He does not leave “for weariness” of the beloved, nor does he go looking for a
“fitter love” for himself. He instead compares his departure to death, saying
that since he “must die at last”, is better for him to practice dying by “feign’d
deaths”, those short times when he is separated from his love. Thus, he turns
her fears about losing him into an assurance that she is the very source of his
existence; when he is not with her, it is like being dead.
In
the second stanza, donne uses the sun as a metaphor for his fidelity and desire
to return. He compares his leaving to the sun’s setting “yesterning”. It left
darkness behind, “yet is here
today”. If the sun can return each day,
despite its lengthy journey around the world, then the beloved can trust that
the lover will return since his journey is shorter. Besides, he will make
“speedier journeys” since he has more reason to go and return than does the
sun.
In the third stanza, the poet turns to
contemplating larger problems beyond merely being separated from a loved one.
He notes how “feeble is man’s power” that one is unable add more time to his
life during periods of “good fortune”. Ironically, the poet notes, instead add
“our strength” to misfortune and “teach it art and length”, thereb giving bad
situations power over our lives. We are so powerless that even the power we
have turns against us in bad fortune perhaps
the suggestion here is that the lover has no choice but I go, not having
enough strength to overcome fate.
This stanza also serves as a turning point in the song. The two prior
stanzas are assurances that the lover will return quickly and faithfully. The
final two stanzas focus on the harms his belove may cause or fear.
“when thou sigh’st , thou sigh’st not wind,/ but sigh’st my soul away” he says in the first line of
the fourth stanza. The beloved’s expressions of despair cause harm to her
lover, he argues, because he is so much a part of her that he is in her breath.
He may also mean that her sighs demonstrate her lack of trust in him. The same
argument applies to her tears; she depletes his “life’s blood” when she cries.
this is way she said to be “unkindly kind” with her tear; this oxymoron
emphasizes the lover’s pain in seeing the extent of her need to be with him. He
concludes the stanza complaining that “it cannot be/ that love’s me”, since she
appears willing to “waste” his best psrts (perhaps the beloved herself as she
pines for him).
In the final stanza the lover warning his beloved against future ills
she may bring upon him if she continues to fear a future without him. He urges
her “divining heart” to avoid predicting him harm; it is possible that “destiny
may take thy part” and fulfill her fears by leading to true dangers. He prefers
that she instead see his absence as a moment in the night when the two of them
are in bed together, merely “turn’d aside to sleep”. He leaves her with the
encouragement that two people whose love is their very lifeblood can “ne’er
parted be”; they are together in spirit.
This poem bears similarities to donne’s other work about departure from
his loved one, “valediction: forbidding mourning.” The tone of the song
considered here is lighter, however, and the imagery not so controlled,
poignant, or unexpected as that latter work. Nevertheless, it is worth
attempting to read this poem, like so many others of donne’s, as a spiritual
allegory. Perhaps one again can see the lover as god and the beloved as the
church, in which case one might find a resonance with the promised second
coming of jesus in the Christian tradition; in this tradition he will soon
return to the world even though he was crucified.
..
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