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.