Elegy 16: on His Mistress

John Donne

Elegy 16: ‘On His Mistress’

Contexts and perspectives

John Donne’s Elegies were written in the 1590s. During this time, he was very busy trying to establish a career at court. In what some have argued was a bid to show his loyalty to the (Protestant) crown, he joined a naval expedition to Cádiz, Spain, in 1596, and an expedition to the Azores a year later. As for all good Renaissance men, military endeavour and poetry writing were not mutually exclusive activities.

Elegies are now regarded as poems written to lament the dead. However, when Donne was writing, the term had a broader meaning, referring instead to poetry of a reflective nature with a regular metre. It is often noted that Donne was probably inspired by the Roman poet Ovid (43BC–AD18), whose poetry was less idealised in its address to women than in poems with a Petrarchan influence. Instead, Ovidian love poems are characterised by a more down to earth, forthright nature.

Summary

By our first meeting and the desires and dreams that arose from it, by the compassion which my powerful arguments created in you, and by the memory of my spies’ and rivals’ threats, I calmly beg you. But by your father’s anger and all the pain of separation, I earnestly appeal to you; and all the oaths we have sworn to be faithful to each other, I here unswear and overswear with this: you must not love me in such dangerous ways. Fair love, moderate love’s rash emotion and be my true mistress not my pretend page.

I’ll go, and with your kind permission I’ll leave you behind, the only person who will make me want to hurry back; oh, if you die before me, my soul will come to you from wherever I am. Your otherwise all-powerful beauty cannot remove wild seas or your love teach them to be gentle; nor can it tame the north wind’s harshness. You have read how roughly he destroyed even his lover, the beautiful Orithea. Whether it turns out good or bad, it is madness to test dangers unnecessarily; instead believe the saying that absent lovers live in one another.

Don’t pretend to be anything, not a boy, and don’t change either your body’s or your mind’s usual form. Don’t be a stranger only to yourself; everyone else will immediately see a woman’s blushing grace in your face. Richly dressed apes are still called apes, and whether it is eclipsed or shining brightly we call the moon the moon.

French men, changeable chameleons, walking clap clinics, fashion victims, obsessed with love, and the biggest bunch of actors on the world’s stage, will immediately know you in both senses of the word. The impartial Italian, as we go through his warm country, will think you are my page and will lust after you angrily, like Lot’s guests. But none of these men, nor the drunken Dutchmen, will offend you if you stay here. Oh stay here, because for you England is the only place good enough for you to walk until God calls you to join him.

When I have gone, dream me some happiness. Don’t let your looks give away our secret love, and don’t either praise or dispraise me, or bless or curse love’s power in public; and don’t frighten your nurse with nightmares, crying out ‘oh, my lover is killed, I saw him go over the Alps alone; I saw him attacked, fight, taken, stabbed, fall and die.’ Predict me a better fortune, unless awe-inspiring Jove thinks it’s enough that I have had your love.

John Donne

Elegy 16: ‘On His Mistress’

Explanations

Make sure you are clear about the meanings of these words in the poem, using close analysis of the word in the context of its line, the glossary in your edition of the poems (if available), dictionaries, and perhaps an encyclopaedia.

Line / Word/phrase / Explanation
1 / strange
1 / fatal
2 / thereof
3 / remorse
5 / begot
8 / want
8 / divorcement
9 / conjure
10 / constancy
13 / temper
14 / feign’d
14 / page
19 / else
21 / Boreas
23 / Orithea
27 / dissemble
28–9 / be not strange/
to thy self only
31–2 / as soon/
Eclips’d as bright
34 / spitals
36 / players
37 / know
38 / indifferent
41 / Lot
42 / hydroptic
42 / displease
44 / gallery
46 / our greatest King
51 / startings
52 / slain
54 / assail’d
55 / augur
55 / except
55 / dread
55 / Jove

John Donne

Elegy 16: ‘On His Mistress’

Explanations – teacher’s ‘here’s one I made earlier’ version

Line / Word/phrase / Explanation
1 / strange / i.e. when they were still strangers
1 / fatal / fateful
2 / thereof / from there
3 / remorse / pity or compassion
5 / begot / created or caused
8 / want / want of each other
8 / divorcement / separation
9 / conjure / appeal earnestly to
10 / constancy / fidelity
13 / temper / (verb) make more temperate, moderate
14 / feign’d / pretended
14 / page / boy employed to run errands
19 / else / otherwise
21 / Boreas / in Greek mythology, the god personifying the north wind
23 / Orithea / in Greek mythology, a daughter of the king of Athens whom the rough Boreas loved; in Plato she was killed when he blew her over a cliff
27 / dissemble / conceal by pretence
28–9 / be not strange/
to thy self only / don’t be a stranger only to yourself i.e. you’d feel different but everyone else would see straight through the disguise
31–2 / as soon/Eclips’d as bright / as much when it is eclipsed as when it is bright
34 / spitals / hospitals, especially for the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases
Syphilis was called the ‘French disease’
36 / players / actors; often considered disreputable characters
37 / know / ambiguous meaning: both recognise and have carnal knowledge of
38 / indifferent / having no preferences; impartial
41 / Lot / from the Old Testament; Lot entertained two angels in his house in Sodom, but the Sodomites thought they were two beautiful young men, and demanded to be allowed to ravish them (Genesis 19)
42 / hydroptic / a person with a disease associated with an insatiable thirst
42 / displease / annoy, offend or cause displeasure
44 / gallery / the ante-room for those waiting to see the sovereign
46 / our greatest King / God
51 / startings / sudden involuntary movements of one’s body from fright
52 / slain / killed violently
54 / assail’d / attacked violently
55 / augur / predict
55 / except / unless
55 / dread / awe-inspiring
55 / Jove / another name for Jupiter; in Roman mythology, the king and ruler of the Olympian gods

Themes and issues, attitudes and values

1. The opening line describes the lovers’ first meeting as “fatal”. What impression does this create of the nature of love?

2. This poem describes the forbidden relationship between the speaker and his mistress, one that has incurred her “father’s wrath” and threats to him from “spies and rivals”. What impression do you gain from the poem of the nature of forbidden love?

3. Divine authority is seen engaging directly with the lives of the two lovers, “Our greatest King” with the mistress and “dread Jove” with the speaker. What does this suggest about the speaker’s view of the value of their love?

4. What impressions are conveyed in this poem of the nature of masculinity and the nature of femininity? Make sure you include in your consideration the allusion to the story of Boreas and Orithea. To what extent do these impressions accord with modern views of gender identity?

5. How is the treatment of the relationship made “realistic, dramatic and direct”? Make sure you include in your consideration the imagined nightmare in lines 51–54.

Language

1. The word “by” is repeated seven times in the long opening sentence. What impression of the speaker is created by this?

2. The speaker purports to “calmly beg”, “conjure”, “unswear” and “overswear”. How does this sequence of verbs create a dramatic sense of tension?

3. Which other words in the long opening sentence contribute to this sense of tension? How do they achieve this effect?

4. From which culturally important text do the words “thou shalt not” come? What effect does this allusion have on our impression of the speaker?

5. “Temper” in line 13, “Be” in line 14, “feed” in line 25, “Dissemble” in line 27, “be” in line 28, “stay” in line 43, “dream” in line 47, “nor let” in line 48, all of line 49, “nor … fright” in line 50, and “augur” in line 55 are all verbs in the imperative form. How does this affect our impressions both of the speaker’s personality and of his attitude to women?

6. What does the difference between “thirst” in line 17 and “hydroptic” in line 42 have to tell us about the speaker’s attitudes to the English and the Dutch? Both words, however, use the imagery of thirst to describe love. What does this suggest about the speaker’s view of the nature of love?

7. Lines 15–18 have a very gentle, reassuring tone which is partly created by the aural impact of the diction. What do you notice about the vowel and consonant sounds used here to create this effect?

8. The words “else almighty” are in parentheses in line 19. What impression does this create of the speaker’s attitude to his mistress?

9. In lines 27–28 there are four negative forms, “nothing”, two “not”s and two “nor”s. How does this affect the tone of this part of the poem?

10. In line 30 the speaker talks of his mistress’ femininity as “A blushing womanly discovering grace”; in line 31 he compares her ability to disguise herself effectively with that of an ape. What do you make of this incongruous juxtaposition?

11. The speaker uses five terms of abuse for French men. What are these? What do you notice about the aural impact of these words?

12. What does the biblical allusion in line 41 contribute to our understanding of the speaker’s personality? How does this affect your response to him and to the poem?

13. How do the interjections in lines 17 and 43 affect the mood of the poem?

14. The imagined sleep-talking of his mistress is very declamatory with its repeated interjections “Oh, oh/Nurse, O”, its rhetorical repetition of “I saw him”, and the listing of melodramatic verbs in line 54. What does this, and line 13, suggest about the speaker’s judgement of his mistress’ character, and perhaps of femininity itself?

Structure

1. It has been argued that part of the emotional power and integrity of Donne’s poems is created by the use of a structure which follows the logic of natural thought processes. To what extent do you agree with this statement in relation to this poem? Do you think the long opening sentence creates an effect that is similar or different to the rest of the poem in this respect?

Form

1. Annotate a copy of the poem to show its rhythm. You will notice that the rhythm is much more varied than in some of the other poems, reflecting shifts and turns in the poem’s moods.

2. In what metre does the poem start and continue, with minor variations, over the first 7 lines? How does this relate to the mood in this section?

3. In line 8 and in the first half of line 11, that regularity breaks down a little. What mood shifts do these changes reflect?

4. In lines 13–17 a rather disjointed but nonetheless recognisably trochaic metre are introduced. What effect does this create? How does this reflect the mood at this point?

5. The rhythm then becomes iambic again, from the second half of line 17 to 24. What mood shift does this signal?

6. Lines 24–26 are one sentence, yet the rhythm (and with it the mood) changes from line 24 to the first half of line 25; again in the second half of line 25 (note unusual dactylic rhythm here and in line 44); and again in line 26. What impression does this give you of the speaker?

7. Note the number of strongly stressed syllables in lines 27–28 in comparison with most previous lines. How does this affect the pace of these lines? Why is this change of pace significant? Consider this also in line 54.

8. The metre changes from iambs to trochees at the start of the section containing the terms of abuse for French men. How does this heighten the speaker’s sense of contempt?

9. The final two lines start with strongly stressed syllables. Why?

10. The poem is written in rhyming couplets. How does this embody the speaker’s attitude to his subject?