Sweetest love, I do not go - John Donne
Sweetest love, I do not go,
For
weariness of thee,
Nor in hope the world can show
A
fitter love for me;
But since that I
Must die at last, 'tis best
To use myself in jest
Thus by
feign'd deaths to die.
Yesternight the sun went hence,
And yet
is here today;
He hath no desire nor sense,
Nor
half so short a way:
Then fear not me,
But believe that I shall make
Speedier journeys, since I take
More
wings and spurs than he.
O how feeble is man's power,
That if
good fortune fall,
Cannot add another hour,
Nor a
lost hour recall!
But come bad chance,
And we join to'it our strength,
And we teach it art and length,
Itself
o'er us to'advance.
When thou sigh'st, thou sigh'st not wind,
But
sigh'st my soul away;
When thou weep'st, unkindly kind,
My
life's blood doth decay.
It cannot be
That thou lov'st me, as thou say'st,
If in thine my life thou waste,
That
art the best of me.
Let not thy divining heart
Forethink me any ill;
Destiny may take thy part,
And may
thy fears fulfil;
But think that we
Are but turn'd aside to sleep;
They who one another keep
Alive, ne'er parted be.
The present
poem of John Donne deals with the theme of love in which the lover addresses to
his beloved. It is a poem about the lover’s emotion, when it is time for him to
separate himself from his beloved, on account of his forth coming death. The
lover is of the opinion that those who love truly can never be separated even
by death.
The poem opens with the lover’s clarification that he is going away
from her not because he is tired from her or he hopes to find a better person
than his beloved. The only reason why he is going away from her is his death.
The lover accepts his physical death as a fake death. His real death would take
place only if he discontinues loving her.
The lover
gives example of the sun. The Sun that went away the previous night has come
back again though the sun has neither sense nor desire to come back. Compared
to that he has both – sense and desire, so he would make his journey speedier
than the sun and he will come back the next day.
The Lover
comments on futility of human power saying that man cannot add even one hour
more to his happy time. Man cannot bring back his happy days once they are
gone. The lover is not afraid of his death and tells his beloved also not be
afraid of his death.
The lover
requests her not to sigh or weep because when she sighs it is not the air but
his soul which comes out. When she weeps it is not the tears but his blood
comes out. If she wastes his soul and blood like this, he would come to a
conclusion that she does not love him as she claims.
The lover of
this poem believes that her fear may come true and she may die after his death,
but it would give them chance to remain side by side in their grave. So death
would give them an opportunity to be together. It is a firm belief of the lover
that those who love truly, they never apart.
The present
poem is a good example of Donne’s metaphysical poetry. It employs images like “The Sun”,
“Wings”,
“Destiny” and “Divining Heart” giving
a metaphysical touch to this poem.
Reference-
Reference-
- https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/44128
- Class notes (18/9/2015) by R.K.Mandaliya
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