“The Love Poems of John Donne” by Charles Fowkes
Always a delight to return to the poems of Donne. Excellent introduction by Fowkes.
“I that live in the country without stupefying, am not in darkness, but in shadow, which is not light, but a pallid, waterish and diluted one.” (Fowkes quoting Donne)
Poems include:
“Go and Catch a Falling Star” - Anthropomorphic metaphors
“The Sun Rising” - Opens with “Busy old fool, unruly son…” ABBA CDCD EE. Deflating the overrated, elevating the worthy. This guy feels the world in a sensational perspective.
“The Canonization”: Great poem! This is another 5 star rating for his poems, such as Batter My Heart, Three-Person’d God; A Valediction; The Ecstasy. “Call us what you will, we are made such by love..”
“Air and Angels” - “Twice or thrice had I loved thee / Before I knew thy face or name ..” Beautiful
“Break of Day” - Rhyming couplets. Good poem about not being so busy that you miss daily ‘life’.
“The Flea” - Another poem of lovers’ plea. “… our two bloods mingled be;” “.. with one blood made of two,” Emily Bronte MUST have been influenced by Donne!
“The Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy’s Day” - Reminded me of allusions to pagan mythology, “But I am by her death, (which word wrongs her) / Of the first nothing, the Elixer grown;”
“.. oft a flood / Have wee two wept, and so / Drownd the whole world, us two..” I love how this guy thinks, how he feels.
“The Bait” - “Come live with me and be my love..” “… of golden sands, and crystal brooks,
With silken lives, and silver hooks.”
“The Apparition” - Vivid descriptions. Intense.
“The Broken Heart” - (Again) Wow! This is my kind of poetry!
“A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” - “So let us melt …” Farewell at the death of a soul-mate. Surely this had been read by Emily Bronte and influenced her poetic expressions and novel ‘Wuthering Heights’, e.g. “Our two souls therefore, which are one..”
“The Ecstasy” - Again, like ‘Valediction’, this poem must have influenced Emily Bronte.
“The Funeral” - Yet again… surely Emily Bronte savoured this poem (as evident in her fictional character, Heathcliff, and in her poem ‘Honour’s Martyr’. Awesome!)
“Whate’er she meant by it bury it with me / For since I am Love’s martyr, it might breed idolatry…” “That since you would save none of me, I bury some of you.”
OMG how cool is that writing!
“The Relic” - How can this not be an influence for ‘Wuthering Heights’? Look at this poem! It opens with:
“When my grave is broke up again
Some second guest to entertain,
(For graves have learn'd that woman head,
To be to more than one a bed)
And he that digs it, spies
A bracelet of bright hair about the bone,
Will he not let'us alone,
And think that there a loving couple lies,
Who thought that this device might be some way
To make their souls, at the last busy day,
Meet at this grave, and make a little stay?”
“To His Mistress Going to Bed” - Wow. Tender, honest, spiritual, marital. Also titled Elegy XIX. “Ill spirits walk in white, / we easily know, / By this these Angels from an evil sprite..”