The Song Essay -- John Donne The Song Essays

The SongMany of John Donnes poems are on the subject of love and equally asmany on the subject of sex. As a love poet, especially when Donnewrites vividly on his wife he is very much concerned with his subject(his wife) however he can appear selfish and cold in the more sexualreferenced poems. To fully make my point I have stu blow overd ii poems,which I believe show his character as less self-absorbed as in thesexual referenced poems.This poem is written for his wife and is essentially saying goodbye ashe is leaving her physically but arguing that she mustnt be sad ofhis departure and instead arguing that they are not in truth parting andeach verse is a different stunt man or argument for this.I feel that this poem shows distinctly the love that John Donne hadfor his wife. This poem, as easily as having a very good use of wordsand imagery shows to me true feelings of love for his wife. The linessuch asBut since that IMust die at last, tis bestto use myself in jestThus by feignd deaths to dieMay be misinterpreted as selfish and self-obsessed comments. Incomforting his wife, who appears to be upset that he is leaving, andconcerned that he is going in weariness for thee, he says that as hewill die eventually anyway, it is good practice (jest) universe apartfor when they will be separated by death. Although it may appear thathe thinks that his wife loves him so much that she needs practice forwhen he dies, in other words he is fond of himself and that his wifeloves him so much, he simply accepts that she loves him and is makingthis point purely to reassure her and make amends for his reluctantabsence from her life.Yesternight the sun went hence,And yet is here today... ....This poem, he is trying to stop her from leaving by talking to her andasking her. However, they both tell of their relationship and of theirlove.In answer to my beginning statement that I do not think that JohnDonne is more concerned with writing about himself than with adoringhis mistre ss, I solace believe that. In his sexual poems such as TheApparition, The Flea and Going to bed he seems only concerned with sexand himself and I would agree in those contexts he seems selfish anduninterested in anything else the mistresses have to offer. However,when he is a love poet and he is writing about and to his wife, hestill writes with the same wit and inventiveness but the writing flowsand sounds so beautiful. He is very much concerned with his wife morethan himself as every image of her leaves us with an angelic image ofher and his love for her.