Lover s Infiniteness. Songs of Ourselves II. Notes Compiled by Shubhanshi Gaudani for Literature IGCSE

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1 Lover s Infiniteness Songs of Ourselves II Notes Compiled by Shubhanshi Gaudani for Literature IGCSE If yet I have not all thy love, Dear, I shall never have it all, I cannot breathe one other sigh, to move, Nor can entreat one other tear to fall. All my treasure, which should purchase thee, Sighs, tears, and oaths, and letters I have spent, Yet no more can be due to me, Than at the bargain made was meant. If then thy gift of love were partial, That some to me, some should to others fall, Dear, I shall never have thee all. Or if then thou gavest me all, All was but all, which thou hadst then; But if in thy heart, since, there be or shall New love created be, by other men, Which have their stocks entire, and can in tears, In sighs, in oaths, and letters outbid me, This new love may beget new fears, For, this love was not vowed by thee. And yet it was, thy gift being general, The ground, thy heart is mine; whatever shall Grow there, dear, I should have it all. Yet I would not have all yet, He that hath all can have no more, And since my love doth every day admit New growth, thou shouldst have new rewards in store; Thou canst not every day give me thy heart, If thou canst give it, then thou never gav st it; Love s riddles are, that though thy heart depart, It stays at home, and thou with losing sav st it: But we will have a way more liberal, Than changing hearts, to join them, so we shall Be one, and another s all. NOTES COMPILED BY: SHUBHANSHI GAUDANI 1

2 Line wise Analysis I felt a pang of genuine sadness, just a dim flicker, but enough so that I could be emotionally moved, although at a molecular level. This would also account for the fact that, persistence, is something not common in everyday people, like me. Simple-minded people don t really enjoy something they have to work hard for, like love, so after maybe the second or third try, they d give up. But who am I to judge love; I ve but had a taste of what it truly is. Either way, this is particularly more emotionally moving than your everyday lover clinging on to a long moved on love, as John Donne s poetic version of it seems to me like the harsh, stark and true reality that the love won t love you back. -Mike Li In the first stanza, Donne s outlook is fairly defeatist. He feels if yet I have not all thy love, I shall never have it all. Donne s idea of love comes across as childish, as one cannot really quantify love. The tone suggests gentleness, but the lover also seems jealous: he wants claim to all of this woman's love. He has been her suitor; he has tried to purchase her with Sighs, tears, and oaths, and letters. He has not yet been wholly successful, and he seems to think that he is entitled to the lady's love because of his efforts, rather than because he has fully persuaded her. The words purchase leads me to the idea, that he views love more as an artefact, than a feeling. The attached intimacy and warmth of the feeling is rather replaced to be seen as something with more monetary value to show and exhibit.donne goes on the write about many possible situations which makes the tone that of selfreflection and rumination. Also, he seems to be too possessive. The language used here is fairly materialistic. This is attested to when he says and all my treasure which should purchase thee. Donne regards love as a black and white deal, which is not the case. The metaphor of treasure however, could also signify how having his lover s love is of extreme importance to Donne. The theme of possession and, specifically, commercial transactions underscores the inadequacy the lover feels when he thinks of or discusses the all of love that he requires from the lady. He talks of purchase and what he has spent and is therefore due. He has spent his emotional capital, and he worries that new suitors have their own stock to cash in as they outbid him. In the third stanza, he imagines their growing love as a kind of deposit with interest. The line I cannot breathe one other sigh, to move, shows the inability of Donne to anymore yearn for his love. Each and every one of his sighs which also could mean of his lamentations, and regrets of her absence, have gathered to heap up, to that extent, that he can no more breathe one another regret of her absence in his life. The regrets have gone over to gather inside his heart, that he cannot accommodate any more. What NOTES COMPILED BY: SHUBHANSHI GAUDANI 2

3 makes this quite paradoxical is that the title refers to extreme opposite of this finite nature and labels the lover s finiteness, as the Lover s infiniteness, which creates a very strong effect of how the lover s finiteness has been equated to the most possible number of the infinite, and that it could be the best that could ever be achieved by one, and there by it is all the treasure which should have purchased his love. Also, at some places in the beginning when the poet mentions "I cannot breathe one another sigh" and the more depressing and moaning tone, of the poem, it makes me think as if Donne is tired of loving his love. There is a sense of defeat. This thought alone negates all the qualities of the "unconditional" model of love: the ever faithful and devoted Lover. He s tired and generally fed up with his love's disloyalty, suspecting traces of other men, "some should to others" and also shown by "new love created by other men" all of whom have spent equally the amount of time, effort, money, letters, sighs, and tears as Donne. This opens another module of love, of 'abandonment' and love that 'exhausts' someone, which makes me think of how Donne, at his place is justified to be disappointed. If then thy gift of love were partial,that some to me, some should to others fall, Love being termed in the likes of a bargain is unfortunate. One is prompted to think that someone in this deal is about to lose and the other is bound to gain from it. The notion of loss and gain and the colour of business deal to Love, i think, is cheap, unpleasant and unwelcoming. There is further worsening of his understanding of Love from - possessive love (L1 to 4) -> business-like love (L5 to 8) -> gifting of love (partial) (L9 to 11) If then thy gift of love were partial - So here the poet begins with an if condition as mentioned earlier. This reiterates the fact that all these are only assumptions from the poet s side. There is nothing specific from the lover s side to corroborate these thoughts. thy gift of love phrase takes us to either thoughts of charity or glad give away without anything expected in return. If Love is a gift passed on by the giver to the receiver, the quantum is decided by the giver and receiver is glad for any amount for he is usually the needy. But the usual pattern changes when the poet uses the words were partial. The receiver seems to have a specific expectation and if love received is less than his expectation, he is disappointed, sad. The giver of gifts is usually considered magnanimous in her charity but the receiver feels jealous that he is only one of the recipient instead of the sole recipient of her love. (This isn t my interpretation, but something I found particularly interesting (directly quoted) from what my Literature teacher Mr. Umeshkumar Radhakrishnan mentioned, so I thought I should necessarily be giving credits!) NOTES COMPILED BY: SHUBHANSHI GAUDANI 3

4 If then thy gift of love were partial,that some to me, some should to others fall, The play on "all" and "infiniteness" starts in this first stanza, and goes throughout the poem. Donne says that love must be all, like the infiniteness of God's love, and cannot be partial. Any partition of love doesn t make it love anymore, or rather turns it into the negative aspects such as disloyalty fear and lack of belief. For love in order to be lovely it has to be infinite. Donne in the persona of a pleading lover, gets himself into a quandary with his desire for the totality of love. If he has all of his beloved s love, then he cannot have anymore of it in the future. But he desires more everyday. #Ultimateparadox Which have their stocks entire, and can in tears, I like the first word which. Which here refers to other men. Usually which is used to refer to things/materials. Who / whom is used to refer to people. The poet has already denigrated / demoted other men from who to which. This here shows how possessive he is of his lover and how defensive is he even to imaginary other men created by him, in his own head out of his own thoughts! In sigh, in oaths, and letters outbid me, outbid is the key word here. The poet seems to go back to the portrayal of love as a commodity and loving as a business deal. Here he goes one step ahead in his understanding of business from exchange to outbid. Look at the change carefully : exchange means give and take of things equal in value where as outbid means selling something to the highest bidder. This is quite a shameful thought when brought to understand love. Love cannot be a commodity that can be sold to the highest bidder in the market. Here the poet says that it is possible that other contenders could outdo him in expressing their love for his beloved and his beloved might get tempted to give her love in exchange to the highest bidder. (Again, Interpretation credits: Mr. Umeshkumar Radhakrishnan) Also Donne expresses how love is full of misery, sighs, tears, oaths and letters. He finds it so exhausting that he cannot breather another sigh. Love has worn him out both mentally and physically. This would explain why he is so defeatist. He wishes his relationship to conform to his rigid, idealistic idea of love. However, this gives rise to his frustration due to the unpredictable nature of love, which serves to oppose his ideology. For the lover to demand this much from his lady is against poetic conventions, but Donne, unconventionally, is not asking for simply a marriage union. He also has abstract ideas about what love is, and, particularly, what is the totality of love. As is so often in Donne, he is aware of the paradox. He wants a totality of love, but he has also reached the limit of his capacity to feel (Stein 33); he wants more to look forward to. We NOTES COMPILED BY: SHUBHANSHI GAUDANI 4

5 see in the third stanza how Donne resolves the paradox. Third Stanza unravels the paradox with But we will have a way more liberal. On the human level, he suggests marriage and sexual union. The physical and mystical union of himself and his lover helps them share together as one, and one another's all. This is concrete and understandable and, at least in one aspect, satisfies the longing of the lover for infinity. They can merge into one another and yet leave room to grow together, increasing the area of the circle of their union. Natural Imagery: He says her heart is the ground and what ever shall Grow there, Dear, I should have it all. Their vows to each other are like them each buying a piece of land and thus whatever grows there is theirs to eat and theirs alone. This imagery continues in the third and his mood becomes more positive and cheery. He realises he doesn t want all her love because that would mean there is no more to come. New growth means new rewards in store for him. He understands that if she could give him her heart then that would mean their love before was less important as it would mean she hadn t given it before. In essence, he is saying that he worships the ground she walks on, and that her heart is his heart. This shows his passionate love for the woman and all her qualities are appealing and attractive to him. The man is conveying that he wants everything that this woman is, because he treasures her uniqueness as a woman. Additionally, in the poem s third stanza, the man relates that he does not want all of her love at once. He wants to experience the joy of their love growing each day. Therefore, the poet presents ideas of love by indicating that one of the enjoyable aspects of having a loving relationship with someone is the vibrancy and excitement that can be part of the relationship each day as two people share their lives with each other and experience things together. Love that grows daily is a rich reward in a truly loving, committed relationship. Also, there is possibility of even bad produce going to him is not usually thought at the first reading. But such a strand of meaning is hidden within. In this light of interpretation, the poet comes across as quite a mature person ready to accept all that his lover gives him. Even if he has been mostly successful, he is creating the paradoxical metaphysical situation of giving herself entirely while remaining herself. His frustration and insecurities are manifested a lot more explicitly in the second stanza, where his jealousy and insecurity are heightened. This transition in the tone NOTES COMPILED BY: SHUBHANSHI GAUDANI 5

6 further reveals how Donne is reasoning with his thoughts as he writes. Donne worries about new love created be, by other men would steal his lover from him. He worries that they might in sighs, in oaths, and letters, outbid him. Here too, words such as stocks and outbid illuminate how Donne still thinks of love as a straightforward transaction. He is afraid of it becoming something that doesn t align to his stipulations, disregarding how love is two-sided and can never be absolute. Finite Nature of Love: Despite love s paradoxes, the poem affirms its mysteries with reverence and celebration. If desire is infinite, it cannot be satisfied on a finite earth. Thou canst not every day give me thy heart because in a financial transaction, the property is lost once it is given away. How can the lover get her heart back in order to give it again? Only if he returns it back to her with interest, perhaps. Yet, the lover himself does not have an infinite love, and he has used up his stock of resources for wooing. He is human and thus lives within the rules of the finite world. No matter how idealised the love, the love is still human; it must have a limit, therefore leading us to think that human-love is centrally flawed. Paradoxical Love: Yet, he knows that love cannot literally be bought. While the poem may strike the reader as a straightforward courtship plea, the paradoxes show how inadequate stock phrases such as winning love or giving one's heart are. The poet is humbled before the inadequacy of his understanding of love, and by his limitless desire for it. The comparison between love via finance and true love opens up a higher comparison, that between earthly love and divine love. Lines 29-30, Love's riddles are that though thy heart depart/it stays at home, and thou with losing savest it, allude to Matthew 16, Whosoever would save his life shall lose it. The paradox of love remains on the theological level; somehow we must fully love the divine without giving up ourselves as the ones who love. Punctuation: the punctuation of the poem is important in communicating the shifting moods and conceptions of love. Notice the consistent pauses (caesuras) in the opening stanza that make it slow and almost mournful as he acknowledges his inability to give anymore. We see a little of the same as he contemplates losing his love or her growing interested in others, but that gives way to a faster pace and longer lines as he becomes more positive and certain about his love. Tone: Wistful, anxious tone, tense, with pastoral imagery. Sometimes profane; sexual metaphors allow this poem to be interpreted in two different levels of pure love, and banal form of physical possession. NOTES COMPILED BY: SHUBHANSHI GAUDANI 6

7 Sources: Gordon, Todd. Kissel, Adam ed. "John Donne: Poems Bibliography". GradeSaver, 10 June 2012 Web. 3 October NOTES COMPILED BY: SHUBHANSHI GAUDANI 7

Passion. By: Kathleen Raine. Notes Compiled by: Shubhanshi Gaudani

Passion. By: Kathleen Raine. Notes Compiled by: Shubhanshi Gaudani Passion By: Kathleen Raine Notes Compiled by: Shubhanshi Gaudani Full of desire I lay, the sky wounding me, Each cloud a ship without me sailing, each tree Possessing what my soul lacked, tranquillity.