John Donne 'to his mistress going to bed' comparative discussion with 'Courtly love or woman as thing' and 'Unbearable Weight'
3. Write a detailed analysis of ANY ONE ballad OR love poem in the Norton Anthology of Poetry drawing on a comparative discussion of ANY TWO essays in the Norton Anthology of Theory & Criticism to illuminate your argument.
Many love poems are not actually about love; rather they are the objectification of a woman into a vessel for desire. John Donne’s poem ‘To His Mistress Going to Bed’1 appears on the surface to be a poem celebrating the beauty of the female body and the joys of sex. However it is through a closer reading that we see that this poem is in fact not celebrating the woman at all, rather she becomes an object through which the speaker can achieve his desire. By looking at Slavoj Žižek’s essay ‘Courtly Love, or, Woman as Thing’2 and Susan Bordo’s ‘Unbearable Weight’ 3 we can see how Donne represents the mistress of this poem to be nothing but a blank canvas onto which the speaker projects his sexual desire.
John Donne’s love poem ‘To His Mistress Going to Bed’ follows the speakers seduction of a woman as he gets her into bed. The speakers desire is evident throughout the poem, with iambic pentameter, rhyming couplets and metaphor all working together to create this heightened sense of desire. The iambic pentameter gives the poem a steady rhythm, this rhythm allows the poem to flow easily and quickly from one line to the next, mirroring the speakers anticipation for sex. The rhyming couplets also work to create this flow. These couplets mirror the speakers desire to couple himself with the woman; he is marrying the lines together as one would marry the two in sex.
The speaker’s intense desire and lust for this woman is also evident through his exaggerated language and use of metaphor. The bedroom becomes ‘love’s hallowed temple’4 and her body is ‘O my America!’5. These metaphors demonstrate the intense lust of the speaker, the desire is being described as ‘a heaven like Mahomet’s Paradise’6, giving the impression that the speakers desire is as
Many love poems are not actually about love; rather they are the objectification of a woman into a vessel for desire. John Donne’s poem ‘To His Mistress Going to Bed’1 appears on the surface to be a poem celebrating the beauty of the female body and the joys of sex. However it is through a closer reading that we see that this poem is in fact not celebrating the woman at all, rather she becomes an object through which the speaker can achieve his desire. By looking at Slavoj Žižek’s essay ‘Courtly Love, or, Woman as Thing’2 and Susan Bordo’s ‘Unbearable Weight’ 3 we can see how Donne represents the mistress of this poem to be nothing but a blank canvas onto which the speaker projects his sexual desire.
John Donne’s love poem ‘To His Mistress Going to Bed’ follows the speakers seduction of a woman as he gets her into bed. The speakers desire is evident throughout the poem, with iambic pentameter, rhyming couplets and metaphor all working together to create this heightened sense of desire. The iambic pentameter gives the poem a steady rhythm, this rhythm allows the poem to flow easily and quickly from one line to the next, mirroring the speakers anticipation for sex. The rhyming couplets also work to create this flow. These couplets mirror the speakers desire to couple himself with the woman; he is marrying the lines together as one would marry the two in sex.
The speaker’s intense desire and lust for this woman is also evident through his exaggerated language and use of metaphor. The bedroom becomes ‘love’s hallowed temple’4 and her body is ‘O my America!’5. These metaphors demonstrate the intense lust of the speaker, the desire is being described as ‘a heaven like Mahomet’s Paradise’6, giving the impression that the speakers desire is as
Bibliography: Bordo, Susan. "The Unbearable Weight."The Norton anthology of theory and criticism. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2001. pages 2240-2254. Donne, John. "Elegy XIX. To His Mistress Going To Bed." The Norton anthology of poetry. 5th ed. New York: Norton, 2005. pages 312-313. Žižek, Slavoj. "Courtly Love, Or, Woman as Thing." The Norton anthology of theory and criticism. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2001. pages 2407-2427.