John Donne’s The Anniversary; an Appreciation

John Donne’s short lyric –“The Anniversary” is one of the greatest love poems ever written in English. The poem is extremely important from the point of view of understanding the love poems of the poet and, in its brief ambit; the poem embodies almost all the defining characteristics of the poetic technique of Metaphysical poets in general and Donne in particular.

The title of the poem- “The Anniversary,” reveals the essentially dramatic nature of the metaphysical poems which is realized in three main steps- a situation, the characters living the situation and the dialogues. The situation is that the speaker of the poem and his beloved is celebrating the completion of the first year of their love relation. The characters enjoying the festive mood are the speaker and his mistress. However the third step needs a careful scrutiny. Here we have only one speaker, the poet, and the beloved is a silent listener to the speaker without any verbal participation during the course of speech. There is always a misinterpretation of technique as the poem is regarded more as a dramatic monologue which, if contrasted with Browning’s Rabi Ben Ezra or Eliot’s The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock, smacks of the distinction manifest in terms of the distinct and well defined identity of the second person, which is not the case with the technique of dramatic monologue.  Thus instead of taking the poet as a dramatic monologue, it is better to regard the poem as a part of the dialogue with the other participant responding silently to the poetic eloquence of the speaker.

Logic, it is clear from the study of Metaphysical Poetry, is in inseparable aspect of the poetry of the poets belonging to this group.  The poem has three stanzas and all three are logically connected with each other in a syllogistic manner. From the first stanza to the third we come across a consistently developing logical order which eventually elucidates a complete picture of the situation governing the theme.

We shall now proceed with the stanza wise appreciation of the poem. The first stanza is read as;

 All Kings, and all their favourites,

All glory of honours, beauties, wits,  

The sun itself, which makes time, as they pass,

Is elder by a year now than it was

When thou and I first one another saw:

All other things to their destruction draw,

Only our love hath no decay;  

This, no to-morrow hath, nor yesterday;

Running it never runs from us away,

But truly keeps his first, last, everlasting day.

The first stanza of the poem reveals Donne’s fond preference for the juxtaposition of the opposites. Although in this poem and more specifically in this stanza, there is a marked difference in Donne’s treat of the technique of fusing the opposites which we usually find in other poems of his. The more striking example with figure in our mind is the image of “The Relics” where the poet illustrates the immortality of love using a compressed image of ‘Bracelet of bright hair about the bone.’ Donne adopts for the more elaborate approach to the idea in the first stanza of this poem. There are images of temporality and decay and these images are juxtaposed with the timelessness of the emotion of love which invites no decay. The time bound world is represented by the images of “kings and their favorites” and the ‘glory of beauty honor and wit.’ It is interesting to note that the even the great representation of time- the sun- is treated as the object of mortality. Contrasted to the images of mortality and subjugation to tyranny of time, there is emotion of love which discards any subordination to the despotic authority of time. ‘Only our love hath no decay,’ the poet claims and discards all that is time bound and respectful to the autocracy of time.

Time always enjoys a privileged treatment in the poetry of John Donne and “The Anniversary” is no exception to it. He concludes the first stanza with a defining role assigned to time image. The speaker of the poem picks up a moment from the speeding time and imparts it the dimensions of infinity. All the divisions of time- of yesterday today or tomorrow have been made inexistent by love of the poet and his beloved. ‘This no tomorrow hath, nor yesterday,’ he claims, ‘but truly keeps his first last everlasting day.’ The important aspect of the line quoted her is the use of Demonstrative (this) and the use of Third Person Possessive Form (his). The Demonstrative refers to the state of mind defined in terms of preoccupation with the emotion of love and ‘his’ suggests the personification of the emotion of love which is a scintillating aspects of the technical framework of Donne and other Metaphysical Poets.

It is thus interesting to note that the crux of the theme of the poem is represented chiefly in time image which offers a sharp complementation to the paradoxical array of the objects of imagistic significance and the emotion. The poet picks up a moment (of his first experience of emotional unification with his beloved) and extends it to eternity. The extension of a specific moment, seemingly isolated from the train of speeding moments is aptly metaph9rical to the essential nature of the emotion of love enshrined in the poem. It is interesting to note that time is treated as tyrant that leads all the mortal objects to decay and the poet’s claim preceding the time image- ‘Only our love hath no decay,’ offers ultimate refutation to the function of time in the world of love peopled by the poet and his beloved, thus the meaning to the contrast between constancy (of love) and flux (of mortal objects).

In the second stanza, the idea of perpetual unification is reiterated with new set of images. The stanza captures of attention for the recreation of previously used images in the new context with a new significance.   

Two graves must hide thine and my corpse ;

If one might, death were no divorce:  

Alas, as well as other Princes, we

(Who Prince enough in one another be)

Must leave at last in death, these eyes, and ears,

Oft fed with true oaths, and with sweet salt tears;

But souls where nothing dwells but love  

(All other thoughts being inmates) then shall prove

This, or a love increasèd there above,

When bodies to their graves, souls from their graves remove.

The stanza begins with a death image that involves horror of death and decay but, ironically, the death image takes us to the world after death; for a new beginning after death thus asserts the theme of life in death and death in life. The opening line of the stanza; “Two graves must hide thine and mine corpse,” is suggestive of the of the poet’s longing for the continuance of togetherness even after death. Interesting enough is the fact that the longing for union after death is expressed in physical images that pave way for the ultimate union of the poet and his mistress. The use of ‘were’ and ‘might’ in the succeeding line; “If one might, death were no divorce,’ makes clear the impossibility of the union realizable at physical level. The image of ‘Prince,’ in this stanza speaks about metamorphosis of the meaning of the image of the same type issuing forth entirely different meaning. The method of contrast makes the idea clearer. The image of ‘’prince’ if contrasted with the image of ‘kings and their courtiers’ makes clear the method of metamorphosis as far as the cast of imagery is concerned. ‘Kings and their courtiers,’ in the first stanza illustrate the world of material value which is subjected to the despotic authority of time whereas ‘prince,’ the image of the same family, illustrates with world of love, the timeless world, the world beyond the tyranny of time.  Donne justifies this new image with the help of the parenthesis where he writes; ‘(who prince enough in one another be). It is again noticeable that despite aiming at the celebration of love at Platonic level, Donne does not spare a  chance to pay tribute to senses who brought the emotion of love in existence. He laments the loss of the ‘eyes and ears’ that are ‘oft fed with true oaths and sweet salt tears.’ The second stanza constitutes the middle of the syllogistic pattern of the thematic development of the poem. The third stanza is understandably the culmination of the logic developed around the theme.

In the third stanza, the poet foresees an entirely different future for himself and for his beloved. After offering gratitude and paying tribute to senses that brought love in existence. He reaches an entirely different level of the emotion of love which is manifest at spiritual level. In the first stanza, the poet begins with the antithesis of the time bound and the timeless. In the second stanza, he pays tribute to body and paves way for the noblest experience of love and celebrates the magnificence of the emotion of love at spiritual level. In the concluding lines of this stanza, the poet makes a direct reference to ‘soul’ and defines it as ‘where nothing dwells but love.’ It is further noticeable that Donne does not rely on the philosophical concept of soul but interprets it within the thematic confines of the poem which eventually amounts to mean the refinement of the human psyche as a result of the pervasion of love. The use of parenthesis again captures our attention. ‘All other thoughts being inmates,’ Donne writes within the parenthesis and makes the idea clear that love for him (as well as for his beloved), is the only constancy and other thoughts are just the fleeting flux that cease to make ripples in the vast ocean of consciousness. The last line of the second stanza provides us with the reiteration of the theme of death in life and life in death. There is a new life for the poet and his beloved when ‘bodies to their grave and souls from their grave removed.’

The third stanza of the poem is read as;

And then we shall be thoroughly blest; 

But we no more than all the rest;  

Here upon earth, we're Kings, and none but we

Can be such Kings, nor of such subjects be.

Who is so safe as we, where none can do

Treason to us, except one of us two?

True and false fears let us refrain,  

Let us love nobly, and live, and add again

Years and years unto years, till we attain

To write threescore; this is the second of our reign.

This stanza is again glutted with paradoxical suggestions as the poet confesses that after death ‘we shall be thoroughly blessed,’ but consequent upon this proud realization is the sense of defeat when he admits that ‘but no more than all the rest.’ The paradox of proud confession and lingering regrets oblige a return to the time bound world of matter and mortality.  The metamorphosis of the image of ‘king’ imparts justification to the poet’s longing for the world of senses. ‘Here upon the earth we are kings and none but we,’ he claims, ‘can be such kings nor can such subject be.’ The third stanza in general and the above quoted line in particular is the important from the point of view of the embodiment of the Donne’s philosophy of love which is realized in complete confinement of one for the other and vice versa. The idea is more explicitly expressed in poems like “The Canonization” and “The Extasie.” The succeeding lines; ‘Who is so safe as we where none can do treason to us/ Except one of us two, more clearly illustrate Donne’s philosophy of love realized in terms of mutual confinement. The poem ends with the appeal of the poet to his beloved. “True of false fears let us refrain,” he says with a view to getting rid of the lingering fears and apprehensions and ends the lyric with an oath. He says;

Let us love nobly, and live, and add again

Years and years unto years, till we attain

To write threescore; this is the second of our reign.

John Donne’s “The Anniversary” is very important poem from the point of view of Donne’s poetic span as a write of love lyrics. The poem marks the middle of his career as a love poet. The first phase of his love lyrics is characterized by his highly eccentric attitude towards women whom he treats to be merely the objects of sexual pleasure and takes them to be essentially unfaithful. The emotion of love is fused with revenge, threat and exasperation. “The Apparition” makes a wonderful example of this phase of love poems of the poet. The poem offers a threat to his unfaithful mistress and contemplates a plan to frighten her by appearing before her as a ghost. He writes;

 When by thy scorn, O murd'ress, I am dead 

And that thou think'st thee free 

From all solicitation from me, 

Then shall my ghost come to thy bed, 

And thee, feign'd vestal, in worse arms shall see; 

Then thy sick taper will begin to wink, 

And he, whose thou art then, being tir'd before, 

Will, if thou stir, or pinch to wake him, think 

         Thou call'st for more, 

The line quoted above aptly illustrate Donne’s concept of love in the first phase of his love poems. The speaker of the poet is eccentric and preoccupied with the idea of unfaithfulness of the woman. The elements of threat and revenge vibrate incessantly on every word and image. The speaker’s mind is full of preconception that a woman is essentially unfaithful and only man is faithful. The same poet while composing “The Anniversary” is to a great extent, free from all such preconceptions. He is assured of the faithfulness of his beloved with lingering fears and suspicion; however, he takes a sincere oath to absolve the minds of the lovers of such fears and suspicions. “The Apparition” lacks serenity of tone and mood which is a conspicuous aspect of “The Anniversary.” It is noticeable that all the poems belonging to this phase of creative span of Donne capture attention for serenity of tone and mood. The poet strives for celebrating the love relation at Platonic level, however, he does not spare a chance to pay tribute to the body that account for the birth of the emotion of love finally realized at spiritual level.

“The Anniversary” is an ideal example of Metaphysical poem. The poem is short and vibrant with the intensity of an experience rather than thought. Logic is unambiguously the most outstanding aspect of the poem. It is noticeable that the three stanzas form a perfect syllogistic pattern. All the three stanzas are connected with one another in the  cause and effect relation with one another.  The development of the syllogistic pattern is the most eye catching aspect of the structure of the poem.