Lovers' Infiniteness by John Donne
If yet I have not all thy love,
Dear, I shall never have it all;
I cannot breathe one other sigh, to move,
Nor can intreat one other tear to fall;
And all my treasure, which should purchase thee—
Sighs, tears, and oaths, and letters—I have spent.
Yet no more can be due to me,
Than at the bargain made was meant;
If then thy gift of love were partial,
That some to me, some should to others fall,
Dear, I shall never have thee all.
Or if then thou gavest me all,
All was but all, which thou hadst then;
But if in thy heart, since, there be or shall
New love created be, by other men,
Which have their stocks entire, and can in tears,
In sighs, in oaths, and letters, outbid me,
This new love may beget new fears,
For this love was not vow'd by thee.
And yet it was, thy gift being general;
The ground, thy heart, is mine; whatever shall
Grow there, dear, I should have it all.
Yet I would not have all yet,
He that hath all can have no more;
And since my love doth every day admit
New growth, thou shouldst have new rewards in store;
Thou canst not every day give me thy heart,
If thou canst give it, then thou never gavest it;
Love's riddles are, that though thy heart depart,
It stays at home, and thou with losing savest it;
But we will have a way more liberal,
Than changing hearts, to join them; so we shall
Be one, and one another's all.
Poem Analysis:
This poem of 3 stanzas, each
containing 11 lines, written by John Donne is about the poet being so
frustrated about fighting so hard for his love by giving her his “sighs, tears,
and oaths and letters”, using imagery to emphasize the amount of pain you need
to go through to secure your love. Lovers’ Infiniteness, obviously themed as
love, contains a rhyming scheme of ABABCDCD. Throughout the poem he tries to
persuade to her that he will always love her and he wants the vice versa. He
wants her heart alone, without having to share it with others, which he
detests, and proves by saying “If then thy gift of love were partial, that some
to me, some should to others fall”. Each stanza ends with a line which gives
different meanings of the word “all”. This
poem is relatable to one of John’s other, named “The Flea”, where he again
tries to convince a young lady to be his.
The first and the second lines in
stanza 1, shows some jealousy in the poets heart as he claims that he wants “all”
of the maiden. He is has no faith at all in the fact that maybe she can return
to him. John tends to believe that if she doesn’t give him “all” of the love,
then it isn’t love.
Lines 14-17, is where the poets
says that even if there was a time in which she had given him all, after the other men, a new love of theirs
might have been created. “This new love may beget new fears” shows that this fresh
love will be the cause of his new suspicions. He, then brilliantly uses a
metaphor in the lines “The ground, thy heart, is mine; whatever shall grow
there, dear, I should have it all.” Which explains that if something grows in a
land, the owner owns it, therefore he describes her heart as his, and everything
that grows in it, especially her love.
Stanza 3, line 2 says “He that
hath all can have no more” where the poet means that he expects his wife’s love
for him to grow each day, and yet he wishes to have all of it, but how can a
person who has all have anymore? “Thou canst not every day give me thy heart,
If thou canst give it, then thou never gavest it” is when the poet says that if
she gives him her heart every day, it means that she hasn’t given it to her in
the first place. In the conclusion of the poem he says “Than changing hearts,
to join them; so we shall be one and one another’s all” where he means that he doesn’t
wish no more to change each other’s hearts, but to join them together and have
one whole.
Research Content:
John Donne was born to a Catholic
family on 1572, January 22. John is mainly known as the founder of Metaphysical
Poetry, and was in a group with other poets such as: George Herbert, Richard
Crashaw, John Cleveland as well as Andrew Marvell. This team had the ability to
capture the reader’s attention, and also change the perception or plant a new
perspective in many ways.
When his father died on 1576, his
mother married Dr. John Syminges, who raised the Donne children well. John had
first visited the University of Oxford and later on to the University of
Cambridge, yet he received no degree from either of the Universities because he
was Roman Catholic. At the age of 20, John had his mind set to becoming a
lawyer and began studying law in Lincoln’s Inn.
While spending plentiful of his
inheritance on Woman, books and travel, he had started to write his poems from
1950s. Although he didn’t have many fans at that time, his poem books, named
“Satires” and “Songs and Sonnets”, very highly valued among a small group. The
religious themed poems took a step forward when his brother Henry died in
prison after being imprisoned of Catholic understandings.
John was appointed as the private
secretary of Sir Thomas Egerton, The Lord of the great Seal of England. During
the year 1601, John became a Member of the Parliament and also married the
niece of Sir Egerton, Anne More. However, both Anne’s father and Sir Egerton,
highly disapproved of the marriage and refused to give dowry. Moreover, John
was fired from his job and was sentenced in prison for a short time. Finally,
after 8 years of John’s release, Anne’s father paid the dowry.
John Donne won the King’s favor
when he published his anti-Catholic Polemic and put forward that the Roman
Catholics can support James I without altering their traditions. When John
transformed to Anglicanism, he was appointed as the Royal Chaplian. John
devoted his poems and time to more
religious subjects when his wife died after
delivering their 12th child. Donne became Dean of St. Paul’s
Cathedral. “Devotions upon Emergent Occasions” was published on 1624, while
John was going through a serious illness. John was blessed by death on 31st
March, 1631, as his state worsened.
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