John Donne Love Poetry Analysis

JOHN DONNE AS A LOVE POET

The romantic scenery of Elizabethan poetry during John Donne’s period was dominated by the Petrarchan model of love lyrics. The poems of Elizabethan era were characterized by presence of charm and a depth of feeling. They were a product of rich imagination. All of Donne’s contemporaries composed love poems based on the pattern set by Italian poets like Dante, Petrarch, Ariostio. In Petrarchan model, women were portrayed and worshipped as objects of beauty, chastity and perfection. Petrarchan poems often revolved around themes of love, courtship, beauty etc. A lover’s entreaties towards his lady-love, followed by courtly wooing, the beloved’s indifference and feelings of rejection and self-pity of the jilted lover were some recurrent themes of Petrarchan love poetry.

Donne challenged and broke away from the tradition of composing love poems on the Petrarchan model. He ushered in a new brand of poetry. His poems and love-lyrics showed characteristic differences from conventional Elizabethan ones. Original in form and content, Donne’s poetry was a blend of sensibility and wit, beauty and repulsion. It was a balance between logic and aesthetics. Donne introduced an intellectual brand of poetry at a time when poetry was all about imagination and aesthetics. There are references to use of Petrarchan devices like use of hyperbole, allusions etc. Donne’s portrayal of imagery and rhythm is different. The texture