Essay about John Donnes Loves Alchemy - 930 Words

John Donnes Loves Alchemy In Loves Alchemy,; John Donne sets up an analogy between the Platonists, who try, endlessly, to discover spiritual love, and the alchemists, who in Donne’s time, tried to extract gold from baser metals. This analogy allows Donne to express his beliefs that such spiritual love does not exist and those who are searching for it are only wasting their time. Donne cleverly uses language that both allows the reader to see the connections between the alchemists and the Platonists and that allows for a more sexual interpretation of the piece. The poem opens with two lines that lay the groundwork for the analogy and that have a sexual implication. The word â€Å"digged; and the image of â€Å"love’s mine;,†¦show more content†¦It seems as if Donne is implying that the Platonist’s claims that they are striving to attain spiritual love is all a hoax because all they are truly after is more sexual pleasure. Donne’s belief of the Platonist’s and alchemist’s fraudulence and deceit is further expressed in lines 3-6 along with further sexual implications. The explicit sexual â€Å"get; and â€Å"got; convey his experiences with physical love, but he is upset that he has not found that so-called â€Å"spiritual love,; even though he has followed a number of steps in a specific sequence, like an alchemist with a formula would do. He has (1) loved (2) got and (3) told (here meaning kept count). And since nothing that he has done or will do in his search has worked or will ever work, he concludes that everything Platonists claim is falsified. The conceit of Platonists being like alchemists is made more explicit in the second half of the stanza. Donne says that just as no alchemist ever discovered the â€Å"Elixir; so too does the Platonist never find that ideal and pure love that he claims to exist. He further explains that the alchemists and Platonists both glorify things that are and will always remain physical. The alchemist ridiculously lauds over his â€Å"pregnant pot; and the Platonist over the woman’s womb, both being things that will never allow for perfection, purity or anything ideal to appear from within them. Similarly, lover’s who try to find the â€Å"hiddenShow MoreRelatedThe Attitudes to Love Addressed in Loves Alchemy and Twicknam Garden747 Words   |  3 PagesLove Addressed in Loves Alchemy and Twicknam Garden Twicknam Garden was a poem written by John Donne in 1607. It is one of John Donnes late pieces of work and is thought to be written about his patron and his feelings for her. Compared to his patron he was a much lower class, almost a beggar compared to her. Twicknam Garden shows a very unique outlook on love, it shows definate bitterness towards love, but in a more reserved way than Loves Alchemy, Twicknam Garden disdainsRead MoreContemporary Academic Deliberations Of Love s Alchemy By John Donne And On My First Son1428 Words   |  6 PagesContemporary academic deliberations of â€Å"Love’s Alchemy† by John Donne and â€Å"On My First Son† by Ben Jonson has given rise to one controversial issue: whether love should be labeled as uncertainty. In fact, some argue that the poem â€Å"Love’s Alchemy† expresses the cynical love, whereas, the poem â€Å"On My First Son† focuses more on pious love. These contrasting views have also been articulately conveyed through words, such as, â€Å"Alchemy† and â€Å"Farewell† in the individual poetic works of both Donne and JonsonRead MoreThe Relationship Between Donnes Religious and Secular Verse.2284 Words   |  10 PagesDonnes love poetry and his religious verse have an extremely close relationship and this manifests itself in the presence of religious imagery and reference in his love p oems, the presence of imagery in his religious poems that is more akin to that from courtly love, and in his style and technique. It is this sense of Donnes individuality that creates two types of poetry that, for all their differences, are strikingly similar. The holy sonnets refer to the old love poet characteristicsRead MoreRepresentations of Romantic Love in Poetry Across the Periods1480 Words   |  6 Pagesby the social and cultural values of the time. Thus, across time, attitudes towards romantic love have shifted with changing values and beliefs. ‘Sonnet 130’ by William Shakespeare from the Elizabethan period, ‘Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’ by John Donne from the metaphysical period, and ‘Lullaby’ by W.H. Auden from the modern period are three poems that clearly reflect the changing representations of romantic love across time. The Elizabethan period in which William Shakespeare wrote was a