Romantic Contradiction in the Poetry of John Donne Essay -- Poetry Poe

amative Contradiction in the Poetry of John Donne John Donnes poem wail 19 To His Mistress Going to Bed is closely related to The insolate Rising in its treatment of love, lust, and togetherness. Both discuss and argue assorted stances on the same topics, but are united by their voice communication and development. The structure of Elegy 19 and use of poetic techniques relate it immediately and indirectly to The Sun Rising. In Elegy 19, on that point are forty-eight lines of adoration of the mistress of the title this poem is teeming of reverence, veneration, and respect for the female form. In passages much(prenominal) as Your gown sacking off, such beauteous state reveals As when from flowery meads th hills shadow stealsor perhaps Full stark nakedness All joys are due to thee. As souls unbodied unclothed must be, To taste whole joys. Gems which you women use ar like Atalantas balls, cast in mens viewsDonne clearly has a high-pitched and loft y image of the human female form. Yet this deification is undermined by the lusty, bawdy qualities of the poem. For example, when Donne reaches the conclusion of the poem he does not summarize his mistress somatogenetic beauty, but instead promises sexual adventure. This is seen in the final three lines, hither is no penance, much less innocence. To teach thee, I am naked first why then What needst thou have more concealment than a man?which clearly negates (or at least portrays negatively) the earlier, more amatoryist aspects of the poem. Other words have double meanings, which furthers the bawdy aspects of the poem, making seemingly innocuous passages into ribald declarations. Examples of double usage of words include tire out, which means both get to work s... ...mplies sexual activity. Indeed, despite its wild-eyed qualities, invoking the ass the lovers share as the center of the suns orbits has a clear sulfurous tinge it is as if the sexual activity of the lov ers is the center of the world, for what else is a bed the symbol of, if not consummation of love? So in these twain Donne poems, Elegy 19 and The Sun Rising, various poetic structures are used to create a split atmosphere of both romantic love and sexual love, which coexist within the fabric of the poetry. Donne skillfully uses such forms as direct address, indirect address, both stanzaic forms conventional and unconventional, and adept delivery manipulation to convey two messages simultaneously, and in doing so he paints an entire portrait of the reality of love that there is always a admixture of romantic and sexual sentiments in the relationships between lovers.