Home English Literature POETRY (Modern & Classical) How to Write Explanation with Reference of Donne Poetry

How to Write Explanation with Reference of Donne Poetry

May 9, 2020

6122

How to Write Explanation with Reference in Poetry. Some important parts taken from Text John Donne Poems, both Love And Divine Poems.

Paragraph No:1

Table of Contents

“If our two loves be one, or thou and I
Love so alike, that none do slacken,
Non can die”

How to Write Explanation with Reference to the Context:

These lines have been extracted from the love poem of “The Good Marrow” in the John Donne’s book of “Love and Divine Poems in Metaphysical Poetry”. In these given lines under reference, Donne says that a lover tells his beloved that his face is reflected in her eyes and likewise her face is seen in his eyes. It is very aptly said that one’s face reflects one’s inner heart’s. feelings whether these are pure or innocent. A lover considers himself and his beloved as two hemispheres which are better than the geographical hemispheres because their first hemisphere is without the standing North Pole and second one is without the declining West. So, he is of the view that their love is not subject to the changes of weather or time. We know that their constituents are not mixed proportionately yet, the lover and the beloved are the same because they are similar in all aspects and as such none of them will die. Their mutual love will be forever because it is free from all kinds of decreasing, declining and withering aspects.

Paragraph No: 2

Of the fruit
of each tree in the garden we may eat,
But of the fruit of this fair tree a midst
The garden, God hath said, ‘ye shall not eat
Thereof, not shall ye touch it, Last ye die”

How to Write Explanation with Reference to the Context:

These lines have been taken from a love poem “The Extasie” written by John Donne. Donne has written this love poem in metaphysical poetry. Being an ardent lover, he has very beautifully and aptly defined love in its various contents. He talks about human love in a metaphysical vein. Here, in the lines under reference, he tells us that if any lover who claims to be an ardent lover like Donne himself and has heard this discourse, let him look carefully at them. He is of the view that after their pure love when they go back to their bodies, he will find no change in them. The reason being, they will never resort to physical sex again: Here, their love is of spiritual kind. Apart from the union of their bodies, there is also a spiritual union of the souls of both lovers. Here, Donne has very beautifully shifted quickly, from the physical level to the spiritual level. In this very love poem, we, being the readers, find a difference between the spiritual reality, and the physical level when the lovers suddenly return to their original bodies after the world of ecstasy.

Paragraph No: 3

If they be two, they are two so
As stiffe twin compasses are two
To more, but doth, if the other doe.

How to Write Explanation with reference to the context:

These selective lines have been extracted from a love poem of “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning” written by John Donne. In these selective lines under reference, the poet who is a mouthpiece of a lover utters that his and his beloved’s souls are not one but two, even so, they are like the compass. Like the compass, they have one central point and two sides which move in a circle. The fixed foot of the compass may not appear to rotate when the other foot revolves. However when one foot moves in a circle, the öther foot remains fixed in the centre while the other revolves, the first foot also. leaves and stands erect after completing its rotation. Then the two feet get closed at the central point and stand erect. He means to say that he and his beloved are two feet of the compass meeting together at the centre of love. The lover further argues that his beloved will be like the fixed foot of the compass, because she is staying at home while he is like the other foot of the compass which revolves in a circle. So, his beloved will incline towards him and her firmness will only strengthen his love. At the end of the poem, the poet further explicates his point of view and utters that as the revolving foot of the compass returns to the central point after completing the circle, similarly, the poet will also return to his beloved and hence they will be united in pure love forever.

Paragraph No: 4

And though it in the center sit,
Yet when the other far doth rome,
It leans and hearkens after it,
And growes erecet, as that comes home.

Reference to the context:

These lines occur in the stanza 8 of the renowned love poem “ A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” by John Donne. In this poem, Donne being an ardent lover, regards or thinks his love sacred and holy. He regards his and his beloved’s love more sacred than the love of worldly people, Worldly people’s love can’t stand physical separation but their love can. First he compares his pure love to a piece of gold beaten which expands for producing a gold leaf. For him, this expansion is an extension of love.

Explanation:

In the selective ice lines under discussion, Donne regards his and his beloved’s souls like compass. Both are not one but two, the fixed foot of the compass may not be seen moving, when the other foot is revolving. As the fact is concerned, when one foot rotates or moves in a circle, the other ‘foot also moves in a point. The first foot of the compass may remain stand still in the center while the other moves, yet the first one also leaves and stands erect after finishing its movement. After completing the rotation, the two feet get closed at the central point and stand erect. Donne is of the firm belief here that he and his beloved are two feet of the compass meeting together at the center of love.