Love: Suffering or Resurrection

Love: suffering or resurrection.

An author, John Donne has expressed two significant themes of love in his poems.

The following essay talks about the relationships between religious and romantic love.

Poems that are introduced in this essay show a reflection of poet’s opinions and feelings

about different kinds of love. Three poems: “The Broken Heart”, “A Hymn To Christ At

The Author’s Last Going Into Germany”, and “Hymn To God, In My Sickness” chosen

and carefully deconstructed and explained. The main points of three poems are about how

they reflect different kinds of love and how human soul reacts to this love. In

John Donne’s poems love is being described in different forms such as love to God and

love to a human even though those two kinds are different, Donne describes them as one.

This essay is based on comparing poems and finding the relationship between religious

and romantic love.

First poem that will be examined called a “The Broken Heart”. This poem talks about

strong feelings of love and desire that are too strong to handle for a human soul.

“He is stark mad, whoever says,

That he hath been in love an hour”(Donne, 1-2)

Author explains that real love is a very strong feeling and in his opinion no man can ever

truly overcome it. He explains that human soul dies a lot faster than true love. Love lives

forever but no human heart can hold it for more than few breaths of life. Love is very

violent and when people are not careful with it, it may destroy them.

“Who will believe me, if I swear

That I have had the plague a year?

Who would not laugh at me, if I should say

I saw a flash of powder burn a day?”(Donne, 5-8)

It’s hard to believe anyone who says that he or she loved for an hour as someone saying

that he saw a flash of powder burning for an hour or someone having a plague for a

whole year. Poet is making a point that he does not and will not believe anyone who says

that he loved for at least and hour. Second stanza of the poem deals with power of love

and how it affects the heart.

“All other griefs allow a part

To other griefs, and ask themselves but some;

They come to us, but us love draws;

He swallows us and never chaws;” (Donne, 11-13)

He expresses that when heart is occupied with love it only spends little part of it for

other grieves, but it will be swallowed by love completely. Love will take over all of the f

feelings and heart will be paralyzed with its power. Poet is explaining that love is very

strong and powerful and that everyone who wants to let it in their hearts should be very

careful before they do it. In the third stanza poet makes a reference to himself asking his

lady what is she doing with his heart.

“If it had gone to thee, I know

Mine would have taught thine heart to show

More pity unto me; but Love, alas!

At one first blow did shiver it as glass.” (Donne, 21-24)

He feels that she destroys him and asks her to have some kindness and respect to his

feelings