John Donne as a religious poet

As a writer of divine verses, Donne has earned great fame and become one of the most renowned and
distinguished religious poets of England. Even we can go to the extent of saying that he is the innovator of a new
type of religious poetry. If he is the first metaphysical poet, he is the first religious poet of the 17
th century also. He started to write religious poetry at the end of his career. It was a time when there was nothing
except gloom, despair and frustration which were ultimately the result of his wife‟s death, poverty and ill-health.
These poems have been addressed to God, to death, to angels or to Christ. However, the main idea of his religious
poems is the essence of guilt and sins, and the request to God for His Mercy. Now let‟s discuss the main qualities
of Donne‟s religious poems one by one.
First major quality of Donne as a religious poet is his “Religious Themes.” In all the poems, he does not
disturb the pure lyrics of his poetry with any other idea except religion. His major theme in all the poems is“The
frailty and decay of this world”, as except love. “All other things, to their destruction draw.”
Second major theme of Donne‟s religious poems is “Insignificance of the Man” in this world. He talks
about man‟s temporary stay in this world, the transitoriness of all earthly joys, and the pangs suffered by the soul
in the imprisoning body. All these poems express his sense of guilt and fear from the temptations and pursuit of
devil.
“But our subtle foe so tempteth me
That not one hour myself I can sustain.”
Third major theme of Donne‟s religious poems is “Fear of Death.” He regrets for the sins he has
committed and fears God‟s punishment. He believes that the sins of his body will be buried with his body after his
burial in the grave.
“Then as my soule, to heaven her first seate, takes flight
And earth-born body, in the earth shall dwell,
So, fall my sinnes, that all may have their right,
To where they bred.”
Another major theme of Donne‟s religious poetry is his firm “Belief of Accountability.” He believes no
one can avoid this accountability for his doings. Everyone will be answerable to God for his good or bad deeds.
“They Grace may wing me to prevent his art,
And thou like Adamant draw mine iron heart.”
Second major quality of Donne as a love poet is that like his love poetry, his religious poetry has also
the touches of his personality. According to Donne, religion should be a man‟s deliberate choice. It should be
taken after careful study and minute observation. As a result of his approach, he got ready to embrace the Church
of England. His conversation with Anglicism also influenced his poetry. Even after this change, he was not satisfied
and could not find adequate or perfect answers to the questions arising in mind. Between this conflict, between
the old and the new, he utters:
“Show me, dear Christ,
Thy spouse so bright and clear.”
Here by spouse, he means true religion.
We fully agree with the remarks of Leishman who has observed: “Donne’s best religious poetry is
intensely personal; not an exposition of Christian doctrine.”
Donne‟s third quality as a religious poet is his „use of metaphysical elements.‟ Being a metaphysical
poet, he tries to find a sensuous interpretation of the soul. That‟s why, when he speaks of death,
penitence,resurrection, punishments and rewards, he uses the imagery drawn from the physical sciences. For
example, he uses the imagery of metallurgy in the sonnet. “Batter my Heart, Three Person’d God.” Similarly, he
uses conceits as the instrument of argument and persuasion. Each of his poems makes a vivid image of some
experience or of a situation which gives rise to the argument. In “Batter my Heart”, he compares himself to a
usurped town.
“I, like an usurpt towne, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but Oh, to no end.”
Fourth major quality of Donne as a religious poet is his „use of sex imagery.‟ In holy situations, the use
of sex imagery is surprising and startles a reader. In “Batter my Heart”, he uses the imagery of adultery. The poet
is the spouse of God, but the Devil has captured him. Let God take forcibly the possession of his soul which rightly
belongs to Him.
“Why doth the devil then usurp in me?
Why doth he steal, nay ravish that’s thy right?”
In the end, the poet entreats God in the following words.
“Except you enthrall me, never shall be free
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.”
 All the other religious poems also contain images which he borrows from sensual love. He does all this to
illustrate his personal religious experiences. That‟s why, mysticism is absent from his poetry. We can say that he
is always aware of his environment, in which he is living, of his passionate friendships and of his self. In this
connection Helen White says: “Donne was not the man to lose himself.”
Another quality of Donne as a religious poet is his use of language with special features including
combination of simple words and use of odd phrases. Similarly, sometimes Donne appears before us as a juggler
in using a language. He tries to play upon with the words and repeats them to lay stress on his ideas.
The last and major characteristic of Donne as divine poet is that Donne‟s aim in writing divine poetry is
not didactic or moral rather he wishes to give vent to his own moods, his aspirations, his sins and his humiliation
in the quest of God. W.B. Yeats remarks: “His pedantries and his obscenities, the rock and loam of his Eden, but
make us the more certain that one who is but a man like us all has seen God.”
To sum up, we can say that Donne‟s main theme is his own self rather than love or religion. He has
interest in taking down and recording his own experiences. In love poetry, he narrates to us his reactions to
woman and sex and in religious poetry, we find a record of his inner conflicts, his doubts, his yearnings and the
questions regarding religion arising in his mind. Whatever the subject be, Donne‟s craftsmanship is admirable.
What we admire more than anything else is the projection of his personality and his mastery over diction, imagery
and versification.

Conceit in Donne's poetry

Donne’s conceits are metaphysical because they are taken from the extended world of knowledge, from
science, astrology, astronomy, scholastic philosophy, fine arts, etc. They are scholarly and learned conceits and
much too far-fetched and obscure. Moreover, they are elaborate. The well-known conceit of the two lovers being
compared to a pair of compasses, where one leg remains fixed at the centre and the other rotates is an elaborate
and extended conceit. Similarly, the comparison of the flea to a bridal bed or a marriage temple is another example
of an elaborate conceit. In The Sun Rising, the beloved’s bed is the universe and the walls are the sphere.
Secondly, there is a sort of tension or magnetic force holding together the apparently dissimilar objects in a
conceit. This tension holds the two together, while keeping their identities separate. This violent yoking together is
done by the metaphysical element. In this connection
Thirdly, Donne’s conceit is not a decoration, a piece of super-imposed machinery or setting but an organic part
of the poetic process. While the Elizabethan conceit is traditional and ornamental, the metaphysical conceit is basic
and structural. It is a part of the process of amplification and argument. It plays a vital role in proving the thesis of
the poet.

By using metaphysical conceits in "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", Donne attempts to convince his beloved
(presumably his wife) that parting is a positive experience which should not be looked upon with sadness. In the
first stanza, Donne compares the speaker's departure to the mild death of virtuous men who pass on so peacefully
that their loved ones find it difficult to detect the exact moment of their death. Their separation must be a calm
transition like this form of death which Donne describes. The poet writes,

"Let us melt, and make no noise"

Then we find another example of conceit which was not found in any poems of any poets before. Here he
compares the two lovers to the pair of legs of compass. Like the compass they have one central point (love) and
two sides (bodies) which note in a circle. Here he says,
"If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two,
Thy soule the fix foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the 'other doe"

Similarly, in the poem, "The Good-Morrow", we find some startling and shocking or fantastic conceits which had
never before found. Here he says, the lover is a whole world to his beloved and she is a whole world to him, not
only that they are two better hemispheres who constitute the whole world. Here the poet says,
"Where can we finde two better hemispheres,
Without sharpe North, without declining West?"
Again he says that as the four elements, earth, air, fire and water were supposed to combine to form new
substance, so two souls mix to form a new unity. The strength and durability of this new unit is dependent upon
how well the elements of the two souls are balanced, as we see from these lines from The Good-Morrow:
What ever dyes, was not mixt equally;
It our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none doe slacken, none can die.

In the poem "The sunne Rising" there are a lot of conceits in almost every stanza. The poet says that the lover
can eclipse and cloud the sun with a wink . He says,
"I could eclipse and cloud them with a winke"

Again he says that the beloved lying in the bed by the lover's side is to his both west and East Indies; the beloved
is all states and the lover is all princes. He says,
She's all states, and all Princes, I,
Nothing else is"

In the poem, "The Canonization", we find the use of conceit. Organic imagery is a strong point of this poem. In
the second stanza, the poet says,
"Alas, alas. who's injur'd by my love?
What merchant's ships have my sighs drown'd?"

The poet assumes that a lover. ship have the power to drown ships, that his tears may flood the grounds, that
his "colds" may bring about the season of winter, and that his "heats" may bed to the list of deaths by plague.
(These are all fantastic hyperboles. The poet is, of course, mocking at the Petrarchan exaggeration). Then he says,
"We' are Tapers too and at our own cost die"
The beloved is one fly, the lover is another fly. And they are tapers too. In then are to be found the Eagle and the
Dove. They provide a clue to the riddle of the phoenix because they are one representing both sexes. These are all
fantastic conceits.

In the poem "The Flea", we find another use of conceit where the Flea is thought to be their marriage temple as
well as their marriage bed because it sucks a tiny drop of blood from the lover's and the beloved's body. And
according to the poet it means that they two have got married. Here he says,
"Marke but this flea ,and marke in this,
Low little that which thou deny'st me is;
Mee it suck'd first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea, our two bloods mingled bee;"
The killing of the flea will mean destroying three lives- those of the poet, his beloved and the
insect. It will also be an act of sacrilege because a temple will be destroyed. He says that the beloved should
surrender her body to the poet because she will, by doing so, lose just as little honour as the life she has lost by a
drop of her blood having been sucked by the flea.

In summing up we can say that John Donne's poetry is abound with metaphysical conceits. Conceits are the
effortless creation of John Donne. To him, conceits come to his poetry as leaves come to the tree. And for the use
of conceits he stands supreme and mostly for such uses of conceit, he becomes the best metaphysical poet.

METAPHYSICAL DONNE: JOHNDONNE AND THE SCHOOL OF

METAPHYSICAL POETS

“Metaphysical poetry, in the full sense of the term,” as Grierson writes, “is a poetry which has been inspired by a philosophical
conception of the universe and the rôle assigned to the human spirit in the great drama of existence.”
The term metaphysical or metaphysics in the poetry is the fruit of renaissance tree, becoming over ripe and
approaching pure science. The word metaphysical has been defined by various writers as an American poet
R.S. Hillyer writes,
“Literally it has to do with the conception of existence
With the living universe and man’s place therein.”

“Metaphysical Poets” is a term which was coined by a poet and critique Samuel Johnson who
used it to describe a group of English lyric poets of the 17th Century who were characterized byample use of
conceits, guess and speculation about the topic such as love, religion etc.Metaphysical poetry is extremely witty
and intelligent. It is deeply religious but also ironical.Such poems are highly intellectualized with a use of strange
imagery and complicated thoughts.Some examples of Metaphysical poets include George Herbert, Richard
Crashaw, HenryVaughan, Thomas Traherne and Andrew Marvell who deal with the genres of esthetics and
emotions, religion, mysticism and philosophy respectively.Marked in the 17th century, John Donne is also one of
the few poets who was termed as a Metaphysical Poet by Johnson.Donne has nonetheless engendered
widely differing viewsregarding the merits of his work. His reputation stands on two distinct accomplishments:
thewitty, sensual love poetry of his early career and the serious, devout religious writing of his latercareer.
Although religious study and spiritual seeking were significant parts of Donne's writinglife, his best-known works
are his love poems. The poems classified as Songs and Sonnets in particular are fine examples of the literary
school later associated with Donne, that of themetaphysical poets of the mid-seventeenth century.

John Donne is the classic representative of metaphysical poetry. His instinct compelled him to bring the whole of
experience into his verse and to choose the most direct and natural form ofexpression by his learned and
fantastic mind. According to Grier son, Donne’s poetry includes the conjugal love which is less artificial than the
platonic strain, purer than the first and simplerthough not less in probability and this truly satisfies the character
of a Metaphysical Poet. In “AValediction: Forbidding Mourning”, Donne gives an expression to the love and
mutual trust ofhimself and his wife, his restless mind to seek far-fetched ideas, similitude and images in order
toconvey to the readers the exact quality of this love and interest as he passionately describes the immortality of
his love in the “Good Morrow”
“If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.”

The most distinctive feature of the metaphysical school of poetry is its imagery. It is often unusual, striking,
farfetched and hyperbolic. Donne had nothing to do with the familiar and easy.
In “Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,” he uses hyperboles like ‘tear floods’ and ‘sightempests’. Also see the
fantastic claim in ‘The Blossome’ “A naked thinking heart that makes no show is to a woman, but a kinde of
Ghost” Dr. Johnson points out on the metaphysical poets in his essay ‘Life of Cowlay’ and says that the poets
make a peculiar combination of dissimilar images or discovery of occult resemblance inthings apparently unlike.
As Donne states
“I, like an usurp’d town, to another due
Labour to admit you, but oh, to no end.”
-Batter my heart (5)
It shows how he compares himself to a town that has been captured by the enemy, which seeksunsuccessfully to
admit the army of its allies and friends, He works to admit God into his heart, but it is as if the God’s viceroy has
been captured by the enemy and proves weak or untrue.Donne was calling himself a sinner because he might
have done something wrong and his body had been taken over by the devil, or the enemy. Because of this he was
unable to be held unaccountable for his actions and did not really have a mind of his own, just as a town under
enemy control would not have a choice in what they did or the rules that they passed.

Another leading feature of Donne’s poetry is his dramatic presentation that arrests the attention
of the readers very quickly. Like other famous poets, Donne has the capacity of opening a poemabruptly adding a
dramatic quality to the poem. As we find such abruptness in opening the poem
“The Canonization”. The line goes as:

“For God’s sake hold your tongue, and let me love,

Or chide my palsy, or my gout,”
Favored alike by the Elizabethans and the Metaphysicals, the most commented upon device of poetry of
the metaphysical is the conceit which demonstrates a shift in use and style.The “fusion of two quite separate
semantic fields into one complex image” is called the Metaphysicalconceit. This metaphysical conceit is one main
defining element of metaphysical poetry. It can extend over several lines, but also over a full poem. So finally
according to theEncyclopedia Britannica a metaphysical poet's work is a “blend of emotion and
intellectualingenuity, characterized by conceit or “wit” – i.e., sometimes violently yoking together withapparently
unconnected ideas and things so that the reader is startled out of his complacency and forced to think through
the argument of the poem”. It is that union of feelings and intellect in verse that metaphysical poets are praised
for by T.S. Elliot . In contrast to decorative conceit, Metaphysical conceit is organic rather than decorative i.e. it
embodies and develops thethought rather than merely embellishing it. It is dramatic, rigorous, complex and
unlikelyanalogies express its rhetoric intention. In fact a distorted or unexpected perspective is almost theessence
of Metaphysical conceit. According to James Boswell in Life of Johnson Samuel Johnson recognized this in his
memorably pithy and often quoted image for the sense of strainwhich characterizes this feature of Metaphysical
figurative
language. He refers to the poets ‘wit’ as a kind of Discordia concors, a combination of dissimilar images, or a
discovery of occult resemblances in things apparently unlike. A concise example of Donne’s illusion in ‘The Relics’
says
“A bracelet of bright hair about the bone,
Will he not let’us alone.”
The poem is based upon the central image of a holy relic used to reference a simple lock of hisloved-
one’s hair. It shows the different and strongly contrasted associations evoked by ‘brighthair’ and ‘bone’.
The chief feature of the Metaphysical School of Poetry, of which Donne himself was the
chief print and pioneer, has been aptly described by Grierson as:
“Metaphysical poetry has been inspired by a philosophical conception of the universe and
the role assigned to the human spirit in the great drama of existence.”

A critical inspection of Donne’s poetry shows that he love those sudden flights from material tospiritual for which
he has been given the title ‘Metaphysical’. With this Donne generates and
intellectual and argumentative quality when. The reader is held to a line of argument, a sequenceof thought,
where every stage of development must be accurately followed and understood if the poem is to make sense.
One of Donne’s ‘Holy Sonnets’ say
“Make sins, else equal, in me more heinous?
And mercy being easy, and glorious
To God, in his stern wrath, why threatens he?
But who am I, that dare dispute with thee
…….. I think it mercy, if thou wilt forget”

The speaker argues against a divine justice that makes capacity for reason and choice the factor
which enables ‘damnation’. Donne argues from the nature against God, he enumerates occasions
of supposed evil in the natural world, and, from the implications that reason and choice are partof the natural
order, complains that divine justice is unjust since it damns hum from somethingwith which he was born. The
dispute is completed by an argument drawn from the nature of Godhimself, namely the divine attribute of mercy.
Further, Thomas Fuller and John Aubrey have praised Donne for his “one of excellent wit”.Edward Phillips
characterized his learning as of the “Politer Kind”. He says:
“John Donne……accomplishes himself with the politer kind of learning…..
And frequented good company, to which the sharpness of his wit, the gaiety of fancy, rendered him
not a little grateful.”
However Dryden, as a critic, with his new ideals of correctness and reason could not appreciate
the naked realism, the harsh tone of Donne’s passion and a mere
display of learning. Pointing out to Donne’s “Perplexes” about the women folk he believes that they should be
delighted with sweet compliments expressing the “softness of Love”. He says of Donne’s love Poetry:
“He affects the metaphysics, not only in his satires, but in amorous verses, where natureonly should reign; and
perplexes the minds of fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy, when he should engage with their hearts and
entertain then with the softness of love.”

Ben Johnson recognized that “Metaphysical Poets were men of learning” and Donne wanted to
show off his scholarship. However it will be not be wrong to say thatJohn Donne rebelled against the outdated
style of the Elizabethan poets. He used intellectualism and reason in place ofidealism which helped him avoid
traditional Mythological imagery and worn out Elizabethan diction, and sometimes he could be transparently
remarked:
“A thought to Donne was experience, it modifies him sensibly”

Dryden called him “The greatest wit, though not the greatest poet of our nation.” though in most of the poems
we see that wit and poetic emotion are inseparable. He fulfills all the characteristic features under a Metaphysical
poet but we should also keep in mind that these poems were written not in order to place him under a particular
category but as a portrayal of himself and hislife. As mentioned above, it could have been that he wanted to
create a different genre of poetryas he was more attracted to the Renaissance skepticism and was initially trying
to get rid of thetraditional mythological imagery of the worn- out Elizabethan diction.