LOVERS' INFINITENESS BY JOHN DONNE

If yet I have not all thy love,
Dear, I shall never have it all;
I cannot breath one other sigh, to move,
Nor can intreat one other teare to fall;

If yet I have ........ other teare to fall;

REFERENCE
(i) Poem: Lovers' Infiniteness
(ii) Poet: John Donne
CONTEXT
(i) Occurrence: Stanza 1 (Lines 1-4/33)
(ii) Content: The poet complains that he does not yet have "all" of his beloved's love, despite using all of his resources to woo her. She should not leave some love for others, nor should she leave herself open to wooing by others later. Yet, he also wants her to keep some of her love for him in reserve so that they can enjoy a constantly growing relationship. He says that love must be "all" like the infiniteness of God's love, and cannot be partial. Any partition of love makes it less.
EXPLANATION
     In these lines the poet describes the impossibility of gaining the entire love of his lady. He regrets that if he does not have all the love of his lady, then he is not likely to ever have it all. He has striven hard to gain her entire love but unfortunately he has not got any more than what he had at the beginning. He has used his entire treasure of tears, entreaties and letters but he is not richer in love now than when the bargain for love began. Thus he cannot sigh, weep or plead with her anymore to gain her more affection. The poet is disturbed by the fact, if he only has a part his his lady's love, someone else must have the rest of it. In short, the poet has no faith in the ability of her lover to love him completely, and he is getting tired of all the pieces of work he has done to try to convince her do do so.  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

EXPLANATION WITH REFERENCE TO THE CONTEXT - GOOD-MORROW BY JOHN DONNE

Geoffrey Chaucer: A Representative of His Age

EXPLANATION WITH RTC: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST BY OSCAR WILDE