The Ecstasy
Where, like a pillow on a bed,
A pregnant back swelled up, to rest
The violet's reclining head,
Sat we two, one another's best;
Our hands were firmly cemented
With a fast balm, which thence did spring,
Our eye-beams twisted, and did thread
Our eyes, upon one double string;
So to' intergraft our hands, as yet
We all our means to make us one,
And pictures in our eyes to get
Was all our propogation.
As 'twixt two equal armies, Fate
Suspends uncertain victory,
Our souls, (which to advance their state,
Were gone out), hung 'twixt her, and me.
And whilst our souls negotiate there,
We like sepulchral statues lay;
All day, the same our postures were,
And we said nothing, all the day.
If any, so by love refined,
That he soul;s language understood,
And by good love were grown all mind,
Within convienient distance stood,
He (though he knew not which soul spake
because both meant, both spake the same)
Might thence a new concoction take,
And part far purer than he came.
This ecstasy doth unperplex
(We said) and tell us what we love,
We see by this, it was not sex,
We see, we saw not what did move:
But as all several souls contain
Mixture of thing, they know not what,
Love, these mixed souls doth mix again,
And makes both one, this and that.
A single violet transplant,
The strength, the colour, and the size,
(All which before was poor, and scant,)
Redoubles still, and multiplies.
When love, with one another so
Interinanimates two souls,
That abler soul, which thence doth flow,
Defects of loneliness controls.
We then, who are this new soul, know,
Of what we are composed, and made,
For, th' atomies of which we grow,
Are souls, whom no change can invade.
But O alas, so long, so far
Our bodies why do we forbear?
They are ours, though they are not we, we are
The intelligences, they the sphere.
We owe them thanks, because they thus,
Did us, to us, at first convey,
Yeiled their forces, sense, to us,
Nor are dross to us, but allay.
On man heaven's influece works not so,
But that it first imprints the air,
So soul into the soul may flow,
Though it to body first repair.
As our blood labours to beget
Spirits, as like souls as it can,
Because such fingers need to knit
That subtle knot, which makes us man:
So must pure lovers' souls descend
T' affections, and to faculties,
Which sense may reach and apprehend,
Else a great prince in prison lies.
To our bodies turn we then, that so
Weak men on love revealed may look;
Love's mysteries in souls do grow,
But yet the body is his book.
And if some lover, such as we,
Have heard this dialogue of one,
Let him still mark us, he shall see
Small change, when we'are to bodies gone.
Friday, 21 May 2010
Monday, 17 May 2010
Love's Alchemy
Love's Alchemy:
Some that have deeper digged love's mine than I,
Say, where his centric happiness doth lie:
I have loved, and got, and told,
But should I love, get, tell, till I were old,
I should not find that hidden mystery;
Oh 'tis imposture all:
And as no chemic yet the elixer got,
But glorifies his pregnant pot,
If by the way to him befall
Some odoriferous thing, or medicinal,
So, lovers dream a rich and long delight,
But get a winter-seeming summer night.
Our ease, our thrift, our honour, and our day,
Shall we, for this vain bubble's shadow pay?
Ends love in this, that my man,
Can be as happy as I can; if he can
Endure the short scorn of a bridegroom's play?
That loving wretch that swears,
'Tis not the bodies marry, but the minds,
Which he in her angelic finds,
Would swear as justly, that he hears,
In that day's rude hoarse minstrelsy, the spheres.
Hope not for the mind in women; at their best
Sweetness and wit, they are but mummy, possessed.
OVERVIEW:
The speaker admits that those of whom have loved greater than him and experienced more enriching relationships claim to know where their happiness come from, whilst the speaker has also loved, got and told within his relationships but has not found happiness, and pessimistically is adamant that he never will. However, he then goes on to exclaim that it is all fraudulant and that no man have found total happiness within their relationship, just as no chemic has found the elixer of life, but claims happiness wonder in pregnancy. He claims that those who claim to have found true happiness and love are merely dreaming, and infact their sex-life is cold and unsatisfying.
The speaker then brings the poem back to his own relationship and praises the ease and honour he finds within the relationship, and asks why the lovers should pay for living in their private, intimate, loving microcosm, just because it makes all other relationships seem insignificant in comparison? He advises men with the secret of such a fulfilling relationship - to endure the scorn he will experience on his wedding day and to be quietly content in his relationship - not necessarily happy though. He criticises the 'loving wretch' who believes that minds and intelligence marries and not the physical bodies, and ridicules him for claiming he finds her heavenly and angelic, in an attempt to elevate their love beyond others (self-criticism of his previous poems?). His closing statement advises men not to seek mind in women, claiming that other than sweetness and wit, they are stagnant creatures.
VERSIFICATION:
-2 X 12 line stanzas - simple, straight-forward way of expressing his personal views as though they were fact or monumental.
-Inconstant metre and rhyme scheme - with Donne's manipulation of the structure reflective of the complex toil involved in the alchemic chemistry of love.
-Use of mainly iambic pentametre, enjambment and caesura - reflects natural speech, easily understood, as though the speaker is addressing and advising other men on the female counterpart.
-Rhetorical Questions - not used for purpose of expressing arguement and stimulating agreement from the audience, but instead show uncertainty and lack of conviction.
IMAGERY:
-Love's mine - physical act of sexual intercourse, entered deeper into each other's hearts, reached a greater understanding of each other - whilst also implicitly suggesting the male speaker's possession of the woman.
-Winter-seeming summer's night - paradoxical image of lovers experiencing lapse of a cold and passionless sex-life, even during the steamy summer nights.
-Vain bubble's shadow - The vain view and attitude that all other relationships are eclipsed by their mighty relationship, which defies all social expectations and exists independantly in its own intimate microcosm or bubble.
SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES WITH 'DUCHESS OF MALFI'
-In both texts, both the speaker of the poem and the Duchess elevate their relationship above all others, with Donne emphasising the ease and honour of his relationship, and the Duchess claiming the relationship is better as it defies social class and the conviction that 'men are often valued high when they are most wretched'.
-Elizabethan fascade usually meant that men often felt scorn for women, such as the brothers' displeasure with the Duchess, however in the play they don't outwardly express this disdain, whilst in all of Donne's poems he will dismiss all formalities and air his outward views, be it only to the intimate circle of friends who were his audience.
-The somewhat characatures of the brothers in the play act on their views, whilst from what we can tell, Donne didn't - using his poetry as a way of venting his emotions without acting on them, so he was merely a scriber of the surpressed views of men in the 1th century.
Twickenham Garden
Twickenham Garden
Blasted with sighs, and surrounded with tears,
Hither I come to seek the spring,
And at mine eyes, and at mine ears,
Recieve such balms, as else cure everything;
But O, self traitor, I do bring
The spider love, which transubstantiates all.
And can convert manna to gall,
And that this place may thoroughly be thought
True Paradise, I have the serpent brought.
'Twere wholesomer for me, that winter did
Benight the glory of this place,
And that a grave frost did forbid
These trees to laugh, and mock me to my face;
But that I may not this disgrace
Endure, not yet leave loving, Love, let me
Some senseless piece of this place be;
Make me a mandrake, so I may groan here,
Or a stone fountain weeping out my year.
Hither with crystal vials, lovers come,
And take my tears, which are love's wine,
And try your mistress' tears at home,
For all are false, that taste not just like mine;
Alas, hearts do not in eyes shine,
Nor can you more judge woman's thoughts by tears,
Than by her shadow, what she wears.
O perverse sex, where none is true but she,
who's therefore true, because her truth kills me.
OVERVIEW:
The speaker begins the poem with a solemn tone, melodramatically expressing his sorrowful and unsuccessful quest to 'seek the spring', which could have multiple meanings, such as seeking the fountain of youth, desiring a woman to quench his emotional and sexual thirst, or wanting to immerse self in new life. He regretfully claims that, by his own admittance, it is him who ruins the 'paradise' and corrupts the relationship with his 'spider love', an unusual metaphysical image that could be seen as referring to his wandering eye, and thus establishing the purpose of the poem to be the speaker trying to claw back his mistress's affection and forgiveness after being unfaithful.
He acknowledges that his time away from the woman has made his desire for her grow even stronger and she appears even more wonderous to him. His mistress's sexual abstinance is viewed as a possitive thing, encapsulating and preserving the wonder of her sexual garden, of which is just reawakening now with the spring. Regardless of the lack of embarrassment and mockery of his masculinity that he would otherwise have experienced, he yearns and is desperate for her to reopen the gates of their relationship, and whilst he would still be the epitome of misery if not in her heart, he would appreciate being let into her good favour.
As is common in Donne's negative love poems, the unrecorded action occurs between stanzas, and it is evident that the woman has retorted in response to his proposition through his shift to a much more cynical and attacking tone. His poem becomes somewhat more narrative and fable-like, accounting the story of a man who's sorrows were so great that lovers came to collect his tears for good fortune. He attacks the woman and the general sex, emphasising, in an arrogant tone that sounds more like the Donne we know, his own constancy over the 'false' woman (which has overarching parallels with 'Go, and catch a falling star' and 'Woman's constancy'). He contradicts some of the ideals he proposed when in his more loved-up poems, elegies and aubauds, adopting the notion of courtly love and then finally rejecting the cliches that are the essence of courtly love, such the the idea of the soul being seen in the eyes. A speaker who is clearly overcome by lovesick confusion and confliction, comes to the conclusion that the 'perverse sex' is the ultimate evil and will always kill anything good in his life.
VERSIFICATION:
-3 X Spenserian (9 line) stanzas - fairly conventional form of poem, structured and systematic arguement most likely to have a successful impact. 9 line stanzas are less tidy and commonplace than generally 8 line stanza and so suggest some sense of or a state of disturbance and lack of a solution. 9 line stanzas also allow a definative line to be the middle line of the poem, in this case "But that I may not this disgrace endure", of which is the central fear of the poem.
-Iambic Pentametre/Tetrametre with elements of trochiac - reflects his disturbed and unsettled state of mind, stressing and unstressing points with desperate vigour. Though the fairly consistant metre shows thoughtfulness and literary precision when presenting his arguement to his mistress.
-Consistant ABABBCCDD rhyme scheme - Shows skill and confidence in structuring arguement, especially with an interlaced rhyme scheme intertwining his ideas throughout the stanza to maintain a control over his arguement, a control that he doesn't seem to have physically within the narrative of the poem, and so he is dependant on his poetry licence to maintain a personal significance. The two rhyming couplets work independantly of each other, seperated by a different rhyme and punctuation, however reinforce the same arguement, though the double rhyme makes the end of the stanza less forceful, memorable and skillful than a stand-alone couplet.
-Use of 'I' - predominantly in the first stanza, suggesting the purpose of the poem to claw back his mistress's good favour, though when he is unsuccessful he bitterly attacks women as a whole, in an attempt to make it less personal to him and more general to all men.
-Elongated vowel sounds - 'Blasted', 'Sighs', 'tears', 'balms', 'groan', 'weeping' - creates sense of the man pleading and yearning for the woman's forgiveness, as though prostrating self at the woman's feet.
-Alitteration (consonance) - 'nor yet leave loving, Love, let me...' furthers the sense of desperation and exuberance in his quest to soften his mistress's heart.
IMAGERY:
Spring - known for its restorative powers, new life, change, restoration. However, the speaker cannot find this and is subsequently trapped in winter.
Winter- death, cold, yearning, sorrow. Speaker finds himself trapped in winter, not being able to penetrate the woman or her love.
Spider - evil, pestulant, unwanted, fearful, far-reaching, unfaithfulness. This is an incredibly ambiguous image that can be interpretted in multiple ways, but is most likely to be negative.
Serpent - garden of eden, doom, temptation, fall. Speaker views self as the bringer of bad fortune and sin, possibly in the hope that his admittance of this will open up the woman's eyes to his realisation of his wrong-doing.
Mandrake - screaming, agony, torture, incessant. The speaker melodramtically views his life as agony and will continue to yell until he finds his way to the spring and his mistress's love.
Personification of trees and conceit of garden - the garden is representative of the microcosm of their relationship, where all is glorious and fruitful and heavenly, like the garden of Eden. However, upon the severing of their relationship, this garden of love has been sealed by a stagnant frost, where the trees do mock and all is not well, that is why he seeks the spring to revitalise his relationship.
SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES WITH 'THE DUCHESS OF MALFI':
-Both texts account the experience of a man who has been reduced to agony and tragedy by a woman, with Ferdinand also violently affected by the news of his sister's promiscuity with 'some strong-thighed bargeman, carrying coal up to her privy lodgings'.
-In contrast with Donne's metaphysical desire to be turned into a weeping fountain or a goaning, Ferdinand involentarily turns lycanthropic (wolf-like) due to the loss of his sister and the dissapation of their relationship.
-Both Ferdinand and the speaker of the poem use the idea of the mandrake, with Ferdinand 'digging up a mandrake' upon recieving the news of his sister's promiscuity. In Ferdinand's case, the mandrake is reflective of his own feelings of agony and torment, whilst also informing the audience of the disturbance to the peace which will occur thereafter.
-It could be said that Antonio and the Duchess possess a 'spider love' as it transubstantials all and defies all of society and social expectations.
-Sense of public 'face' Vs Private 'face' - terrified of the shame and disgrace and the mocking trees/society - more appropriate for the Cardinal, who goes to great extents to ensure that he appears to be maintaining control and that his brother is not mad and his sister is not a whore/dead.
Blasted with sighs, and surrounded with tears,
Hither I come to seek the spring,
And at mine eyes, and at mine ears,
Recieve such balms, as else cure everything;
But O, self traitor, I do bring
The spider love, which transubstantiates all.
And can convert manna to gall,
And that this place may thoroughly be thought
True Paradise, I have the serpent brought.
'Twere wholesomer for me, that winter did
Benight the glory of this place,
And that a grave frost did forbid
These trees to laugh, and mock me to my face;
But that I may not this disgrace
Endure, not yet leave loving, Love, let me
Some senseless piece of this place be;
Make me a mandrake, so I may groan here,
Or a stone fountain weeping out my year.
Hither with crystal vials, lovers come,
And take my tears, which are love's wine,
And try your mistress' tears at home,
For all are false, that taste not just like mine;
Alas, hearts do not in eyes shine,
Nor can you more judge woman's thoughts by tears,
Than by her shadow, what she wears.
O perverse sex, where none is true but she,
who's therefore true, because her truth kills me.
OVERVIEW:
The speaker begins the poem with a solemn tone, melodramatically expressing his sorrowful and unsuccessful quest to 'seek the spring', which could have multiple meanings, such as seeking the fountain of youth, desiring a woman to quench his emotional and sexual thirst, or wanting to immerse self in new life. He regretfully claims that, by his own admittance, it is him who ruins the 'paradise' and corrupts the relationship with his 'spider love', an unusual metaphysical image that could be seen as referring to his wandering eye, and thus establishing the purpose of the poem to be the speaker trying to claw back his mistress's affection and forgiveness after being unfaithful.
He acknowledges that his time away from the woman has made his desire for her grow even stronger and she appears even more wonderous to him. His mistress's sexual abstinance is viewed as a possitive thing, encapsulating and preserving the wonder of her sexual garden, of which is just reawakening now with the spring. Regardless of the lack of embarrassment and mockery of his masculinity that he would otherwise have experienced, he yearns and is desperate for her to reopen the gates of their relationship, and whilst he would still be the epitome of misery if not in her heart, he would appreciate being let into her good favour.
As is common in Donne's negative love poems, the unrecorded action occurs between stanzas, and it is evident that the woman has retorted in response to his proposition through his shift to a much more cynical and attacking tone. His poem becomes somewhat more narrative and fable-like, accounting the story of a man who's sorrows were so great that lovers came to collect his tears for good fortune. He attacks the woman and the general sex, emphasising, in an arrogant tone that sounds more like the Donne we know, his own constancy over the 'false' woman (which has overarching parallels with 'Go, and catch a falling star' and 'Woman's constancy'). He contradicts some of the ideals he proposed when in his more loved-up poems, elegies and aubauds, adopting the notion of courtly love and then finally rejecting the cliches that are the essence of courtly love, such the the idea of the soul being seen in the eyes. A speaker who is clearly overcome by lovesick confusion and confliction, comes to the conclusion that the 'perverse sex' is the ultimate evil and will always kill anything good in his life.
VERSIFICATION:
-3 X Spenserian (9 line) stanzas - fairly conventional form of poem, structured and systematic arguement most likely to have a successful impact. 9 line stanzas are less tidy and commonplace than generally 8 line stanza and so suggest some sense of or a state of disturbance and lack of a solution. 9 line stanzas also allow a definative line to be the middle line of the poem, in this case "But that I may not this disgrace endure", of which is the central fear of the poem.
-Iambic Pentametre/Tetrametre with elements of trochiac - reflects his disturbed and unsettled state of mind, stressing and unstressing points with desperate vigour. Though the fairly consistant metre shows thoughtfulness and literary precision when presenting his arguement to his mistress.
-Consistant ABABBCCDD rhyme scheme - Shows skill and confidence in structuring arguement, especially with an interlaced rhyme scheme intertwining his ideas throughout the stanza to maintain a control over his arguement, a control that he doesn't seem to have physically within the narrative of the poem, and so he is dependant on his poetry licence to maintain a personal significance. The two rhyming couplets work independantly of each other, seperated by a different rhyme and punctuation, however reinforce the same arguement, though the double rhyme makes the end of the stanza less forceful, memorable and skillful than a stand-alone couplet.
-Use of 'I' - predominantly in the first stanza, suggesting the purpose of the poem to claw back his mistress's good favour, though when he is unsuccessful he bitterly attacks women as a whole, in an attempt to make it less personal to him and more general to all men.
-Elongated vowel sounds - 'Blasted', 'Sighs', 'tears', 'balms', 'groan', 'weeping' - creates sense of the man pleading and yearning for the woman's forgiveness, as though prostrating self at the woman's feet.
-Alitteration (consonance) - 'nor yet leave loving, Love, let me...' furthers the sense of desperation and exuberance in his quest to soften his mistress's heart.
IMAGERY:
Spring - known for its restorative powers, new life, change, restoration. However, the speaker cannot find this and is subsequently trapped in winter.
Winter- death, cold, yearning, sorrow. Speaker finds himself trapped in winter, not being able to penetrate the woman or her love.
Spider - evil, pestulant, unwanted, fearful, far-reaching, unfaithfulness. This is an incredibly ambiguous image that can be interpretted in multiple ways, but is most likely to be negative.
Serpent - garden of eden, doom, temptation, fall. Speaker views self as the bringer of bad fortune and sin, possibly in the hope that his admittance of this will open up the woman's eyes to his realisation of his wrong-doing.
Mandrake - screaming, agony, torture, incessant. The speaker melodramtically views his life as agony and will continue to yell until he finds his way to the spring and his mistress's love.
Personification of trees and conceit of garden - the garden is representative of the microcosm of their relationship, where all is glorious and fruitful and heavenly, like the garden of Eden. However, upon the severing of their relationship, this garden of love has been sealed by a stagnant frost, where the trees do mock and all is not well, that is why he seeks the spring to revitalise his relationship.
SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES WITH 'THE DUCHESS OF MALFI':
-Both texts account the experience of a man who has been reduced to agony and tragedy by a woman, with Ferdinand also violently affected by the news of his sister's promiscuity with 'some strong-thighed bargeman, carrying coal up to her privy lodgings'.
-In contrast with Donne's metaphysical desire to be turned into a weeping fountain or a goaning, Ferdinand involentarily turns lycanthropic (wolf-like) due to the loss of his sister and the dissapation of their relationship.
-Both Ferdinand and the speaker of the poem use the idea of the mandrake, with Ferdinand 'digging up a mandrake' upon recieving the news of his sister's promiscuity. In Ferdinand's case, the mandrake is reflective of his own feelings of agony and torment, whilst also informing the audience of the disturbance to the peace which will occur thereafter.
-It could be said that Antonio and the Duchess possess a 'spider love' as it transubstantials all and defies all of society and social expectations.
-Sense of public 'face' Vs Private 'face' - terrified of the shame and disgrace and the mocking trees/society - more appropriate for the Cardinal, who goes to great extents to ensure that he appears to be maintaining control and that his brother is not mad and his sister is not a whore/dead.
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