The Conceits in John Donne’s Poetry

Abstract：John Donne (1572-1631) was an English metaphysical poet and priest in the period of Revolution and Restoration. The features of his works are the usual abrupt openings, various paradoxes, ironies and dislocations, everyday speech rhythms and his tough eloquence. Donne is considered a master of the metaphysical conceit, an extended metaphor that combines two vastly different ideas into a single idea, often using imagery.1 This essay will introduce and analyze the conceits in John Donnes poems— A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning and The Flea.

Key words：conceits, John Donne, poetry, symbol

I. The Conceit in A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

In the poem dedicated to his wife A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, John compares the love between the couple to a compass. “If they be two, they are two so. As stiff twin compasses are two;” In the poem “Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show; to move, but doth, if the' other do”, the soul of the woman in a couple is the fixed foot of the compass standing in the centre, and the man is the other foot of the compass which moves frequently around it. The two feet will never part because of the joining on the top. “And though it in the centre sit, yet when the other far doth roam, it leans, and hearkens after it, and grows erect, as that comes home.” When the moving foot goes around, the fixed foot, though still stands in the original point, will lean in the same direction without any deduction of attention and love to her counterpart. The last sentence “Such wilt thou be to me, who must, like th' other foot, obliquely run; thy firmness makes my circle just, and makes me end, where I begun” emphasizes the importance of firmness in a couples relationship— only if the fixed foot remains firm and loyal will the other foot complete a perfect circle and keep their relationship as happy and harmonious as ever before. In this poem, the love is compared to the compass; the couples are compared to the two feet of the compass; the circle is compared to their everlasting relationship and peoples life. Apart from these, the joining part of the compass represents the couples soul closely relating to each other. All these metaphors can be considered as conceits which provide creative and thought-provoking images for readers to understand his love philosophy. John Donne uses all these conceits to express his understanding of the key point to maintain a relationship — faithfulness and joint dedication to love from both sides. With a split between the two feet or a missing part, the compass can never draw a circle. Similarly, a relationship is destined to break up with either sides betrayal or departing from their original faith and loyalty. Living far away from each other does not mean the end of their love, for their soul is still connected with each other.

Among the conceits, the most striking one of this poem is the comparison between the love and the compass. In the period of Renaissance in Britain, people believed that the earth was the centre of the universe which was formed with circles with the earth as the common centre. This cognition of the universe about circles is similar to the image of a compass which is used to draw circles. This usage of conceit to combine the knowledge of universe to human life is a feature of John Donnes ways of applying conceits. The Norton Anthology of English Literature depicts that Johns conceits "leap continually in a restless orbit from the personal to the cosmic and back again."2 This feature can also be proved by the former stanzas of this poem. The poem starts with a metaphor that the farewell to the beloved one should be as mild as the uncomplaining of a virtuous man to not “profane their joy” with “tear-floods” and “sigh-tempests move”. In the stanza “Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears; Men reckon what it did, and meant; But trepidation of the spheres, Though greater far, is innocent”, John compares common peoples love to “moving of th earth” and his own love to the “trepidation of the spheres” which is more fierce and mighty but remains innocent. These metaphors are all be connected with the cosmos and the personal life, which is also in accordance with “Distinguished poets are always trying to demonstrate traditional pattern of the universe and trying to express any meaning that originates from the universe”.3 The conceits, whether the one between love and a compass or the farewell between lovers and the trepidation of the spheres all reflect Johns pursuit of the spiritual love to some extent, the love different from the physical one between the dull sublunary lovers which is based on sensation.

II．The Conceit in The Flea

The Flea is one of the most cited poems by John Donne which describes a male suitors persuasion to his lover to yield to his lust desire.

In “Me is sucked first, and now sucks thee, and in this flea our two bloods mingled be”, “suck” and “mingled be” indicate the sexual union and intercourse between the man and the woman. The speaker claims that the flea bite joins them as does the intercourse, and therefore her chastity should no longer be an issue between them. “And pampered swells with one blood made of two,” implies pregnancy. “This flea is you and I, and this our marriage bed and marriage temple is” demonstrates that the flea in this poem is the symbol of the marriage bed, marriage temple, and the place where lovers desire are realized. The “walls of jet” in “Though parents grudge, and you, we are met. And cloistered in these living walls of jet” indicates that something evil and wicked may happen inside the wall which may be the symbol of the illicit marriage as has been mentioned in the last sentence. The speaker furthers his argument by referring to the flea not only as the intercourse but also as the marriage. Therefore, the flea is depicted as a spiritual sense which makes their love more acceptable for the woman. At last, “Cruel and sudden, hast thou since purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?” means the woman kills the flea. When the flea is dead, all the metaphors the speaker made ends and both of the man and the woman are brought back into reality. The woman triumphs because she destroys the union of their blood and their connection. She says she has not been weakened because of the bite by the flea. The speaker then compares the possible consequence if the woman accepts his persuasion. “'Tis true, then learne how false, feares bee; Just so much honor, when thou yeeld'st to mee, Will wast, as this flea's death tooke life from thee.” The speaker tries to prove that even they have had the sexual union, her honour will not be destructed just as she remains tact even has been sucked by a flea. He tries to argue that the loss of chastity is not the loss of the honour.

Generally, love is a symbol of purity, beauty and holiness. However, John smashes all these images about love and compares the love sexually to a flea which is often considered as a dirty and ugly creature. However, in this poem, the flea wins admiration of the speaker because it can bite and do whatever it wants to at any time, which is shown in “Yet this enjoys before it woo, and pampered swells with one blood made of two, And this, alas, is more than we would do.”4 The admiration to the flea reflects the view of carpe diem which is quite prevalent in Johns age. This conceit about love overturns the fixed impression of love in peoples minds and poses more questions for readers to ponder and find their own answers. Love can be sexual and spiritual. The former one is often considered personal and some even argue that sex is no part of love. By comparison, the spiritual love is widely accepted and praised. These two kinds of love are like two poles and it is hard to find a balanced point between them or to reconcile them together. However, the love in The Flea contains both the two poles in love, and the sexual love also demonstrates some good features to readers in this poem.

III. The Reflection on John Donnes Conceits

Most of John Donnes metaphors and conceits are far different from the ones in the previous period which generally reflects the similarity between two similar items. Many metaphors can hardly remain their freshness and inventiveness after having been used for a long time and gradually become clichés. Innovative as John was, he often combined two things that seemed irrelevant at all at a rough thought and infused them with deeper meanings. This creative way of using metaphors and conceits is creative thinking, it is which that drives literature to constant advance and make progress. Innovation and originality are two crucial elements in thinking and composition and they demand enormous effort and independent thinking to achieve. Sometimes people use clichés in metaphors instinctively and subconsciously because they all get used to utilizing those which they are most familiar with. Therefore, to become creative and innovative is to abandon the habitual thinking and explore new discoveries in life to trigger intensive thinking. Technology can also propel the development of the conceits and new metaphors just as Johns cognition to the universe helps him to think about the connection between the universe and human life.

【參考文獻】

[1] Greenblatt, Stephen. The Norton anthology of English literature[J]. New York. W. W. Norton and Company, 2006: 600–602.

[2] M.H. Abrams, The Norton Anthology of English Literature[J]. New York, W.W. Norton and Company, Inc, 1993: 1081.

[3] Hu Jialuan, The Sky of History— English poetry in Renaissance and the traditional Western cosmology. Beijing, Peking University Press, 2001: 1.

[4] Zhang Lili. “the special love in John Donnes The Flea”, Journal of Xianning University, vol32, 2012, 23.

【作者簡介】

魏溪丁（1995—），女，河北石家莊人，河北大學外國語學院英語專業(yè)學生。