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. 

          R K Narayan’s The Talkative Man; a Study

R K Narayan, credited with a number of titles in the realm of fiction,  is one of the most important names in the history of Indian English Fiction Swami and Friends was the first appearance of Narayan in the horizon of fiction writing. It was published in 1935. The novel was followed by The Bachelor of Arts published in1936 and The Dark Room published in 1937. The English Teacher which appeared in 1945 illustrates the pains and pangs of the personal life of Narayan which owe their genesis to his marriage with Rajam who died soon after giving birth to a girl child. Narayan himself confesses that novel is “autobiographical in content” and “very little part of it being fiction” (Naryan, My Days, 134-135). There was a smooth and quick release of the fragrance of fiction of the difficult enterprise of The English Teacher as Mr Sampat appeared in 1949, The Financial Expert in 1952 and Waiting for Mahatma in 1955. The Guide, published in 1958, culminated the process of internationalization of Indian English fiction. The novel earned wide critical attention across the globe. It won prestigious Sahitya Academy Award in 1960. The Guide, besides thematic boldness, also earned the credit of technical innovativeness.  The succeeding novels of Narayan confirmed his reputation as the author of thematic boldness and technical innovativeness. “Technically,” says K R S Iyengar that The Guide is “an advance upon early novels” (Iyengar, 359).  The novels that followed The Guide are The Man Eater of Malgudi (1961) and The SweetVendor (1967).  The novels in conformity with the spirit of eighties are A Tiger for Malgudi (1980) and The World of Nagraj (1988).

 Narayan has been writing short stories that can easily be put into three different categories from the point of view of techno- thematic development of the short narrative. Malgudi Days published in 1941 was the first collection of short stories of Narayan. It was followed by Dodu and Oher Stories(1943), Cylcone and Other Stories (1944), An Astrologer’s Day and Other Stories (1947), Lawley Road (1950) A Horse and Two Goats (1970), A collection of the short stories of Narayan, anthologizing short stories from all the three phases of the creative span of Narayan as a writer of short stories- Old and New was published in (1984).

Narayan also deserves the credit of many technical innovations in the domain of fictional writing in India. It is unambiguous that the genre of short stories in Indian English Fiction owes much to Narayan for the growth of contents and form. All along the course of writing short fiction, Narayan has continuous been making experiments with a view to rendering new forms and new identity to Indian English short stories. The Talkative Man is unequivocally the most important creation of the master as far as his contribution to the development of the technique of narration of the Indian English short story is concerned. It is an easy inference that Narayan wrote in the age which is conspicuous for a number of changes taking place along political, social, cultural and even ethnic dimensions. The Talkative Man, the proud first person narrator bears a very close resemblance with the changing values of the country which puts before us a relatively more complete picture of India than any other narrator (first person of third person), created by Narayan. The Talkative Man assimilates all the paradoxes of the post Independence India which define the cultural transition of the country. Narayan writes that ‘he is a part and parcel of the Indian village community which is somewhat isolated from the mainstream of modern life.’ Narayan thus makes us clear that the Talkative Man, in his essentials, is a representation of the rustic mind set of India. The idea is made clearer by providing the reader with the geographical details of the place where the Talkative Man resides. The author informs that he further says that the ‘the nearest railways station is sixty miles away’ (Narayan, The World of Story-teller, 03). He further says that ‘rice fields stretch west ward and merge into wooded slopes of mountains.’ It is further noticeable that the author ‘presents him as a conservative intellect who traces the origin of every scholarly act in the ancient writings of Indian mainly the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Vedas and the Upnishads. He knows by heart all the 24000 stanzas of the Ramayana and all the 1000000 stanzas of the Mahabharata. Thus the Talkative Man in all his magnanimity is the author’s attempt to re- establish the worth and function of the rustic and the rural in the backdrop of modern India.   It is, however, ironical that, in the opening paragraph of Narayan’s novel with same title, the Talkative Man introduces himself not only as the Talkative Man but also as TM. Narayan presents him as a character typical of the one found in the chaupals of the Indian villages. He admits that his ‘impulse to share his experience with others is irresistible.’ The Talkative Man is least bothered about the reaction of his audience. He says he does not ‘care even if’ the people ‘sneer at’ his ‘back’ (Narayan, The Talkative Man 01).

            It is thus clear that the fusion of scholarship and the urge to share his knowledge and experience renders accomplishment to the art and identity of the Talkative Man. The urge to share and express is made more explicit by offering a sharp ironic contrast to his scholarship by presenting him as a lonely individual. His children, as Narayan tells us ‘could not accept his way of life and went their ways seeking livelihood in distant cities.’ The loneliness and isolation of the Talkative Man in his personal life draws a very close and obvious contrast with his preoccupations with the common man practicing fond passion for narrating the stories. It is because of his passion for the art of storytelling that despite loneliness and isolation, he is ‘completely at peace with himself.’ Folk elements are undoubtedly the one of the conspicuous aspects of the technique of narration of Narayan and the Talkative Man is a pronounced representation of the pervasion of folk elements in Narayan’s art of storytelling. Narayan confides that ‘he lives upon the produce of these two acres and the coconut garden and gifts that are brought to him for storytelling-especially the happy ending of a long series-or when God incarnates himself as a baby of this world and marries a goddess in the course of the story’(Narayan, The World of Story-teller, 04).

Narayan renders the Talkative Man with characteristically rustic appearance and delineates him with the a number of associations that have their origin in the ancient knowledge. The author reveals;

When he shaves his head (only on the days prescribed in the almanac), he leaves just a small tuft on the top since the ancient scriptures, the shastras, prescribe that a man should wear his head no thicker than what could pass through a silver ring of his finger, a silver ring because that is also prescribed in the shastras. Every detail of his life is set for him by what the shastras say; that is the reason why he finds it impossible to live in the modern town- to leave his home where his forefathers practiced unswervingly the codes set down by the shastras (Narayan, The World of Story-teller, 04).

            It is of course another scintillating contrast that Narayan portrays the Talkative Man with a synthesis of and command on the ancient and modern ways of life. It is however more surprising that the Talkative Man in some of the stories narrated by him shows not only his familiarity with the modern ways of life but also with the many areas of scholarship and professional domains. Narayan expresses the irony and says;

Sometimes he may display amazing knowledge of modern ways of life acquired through perusal of brought to him by ‘weekly’ postman every Thursday afternoon (Narayan, The World of Story-teller, 04).

It is remarkable that the stories like The Roman Image and Lawley Road are knit around the action that is set in the pre-eminently urban backdrop which does not resonate with the primitive modes of life associated with the Talkative Man. It is an interesting observation that the Talkative Man is equally flexible in narrating both the modes of narratives. The stories narrated by the Talkative Man ratify the pervasion of the paradox in his art of storytelling. Most of the stories narrated by the Talkative Man are glutted with primitive faiths and beliefs that deny any evident logic of the modern world but are definable chiefly in terms of some intuitive logic which the narrator- the Talkative Man shares with the readers. “The Magic Beard” narrated by the Talkative Man is one fine instance of this kind of narration attributed to him. It is indeed noticeable that the point of view of the narrator is not always manifest along the dimensions defining fantasy but it is rationalized with the help of coincidence which is an important tool used by the narrator to convince the reader of what is seemingly illogical or intuitively logical. The elements of folk, seek apt participation as the Talkative Man also introduces a mother figure which can be attributed to the interaction between the narrator and the old woman. Coincidence is fused with simultaneity to render justness to the narrative as the blessings of his coin disappear immediately after he shaves his beard. He admits that he ‘couldn’t collect a pie.’ The narrator also rationalizes the irrational by appending the word of astonishment that he ‘was amazed that a little change in appearance should affect people so much’ (Narayan, “The Magic Beard” The Storyteller’s World, 130). The use of myth is always an important aspect of folk narrative in any form. It is again paradoxical that the myth is manifest in form of parody of the famous Greek figure Samson who owes his powers to his hair and as soon as his head is shaven he loses his strength. The protagonist of “The Magic Beard” recreates the same myth by subtle fusion of coincidence and synchronicity. The beard of the protagonist, reminds us of the hair and strength of the Greek hero which draws a close parallel with the beard and fortune of the protagonist of the story. The device of the Talkative Man thus serves the difficult crucial purpose of using myth in the narrative by drawing an ironic parallel between the modern and the ancient; between the east and the west. Irony however remains a poignant weapon of the narrator that determine various dimensions of the space of the narrative.

“Around the Temple” is another story which is based on the antithesis between the logical and the intuitive. The Talkative Man very meticulously designs the denouement when he speaks about the faithless and arrogant officer who ‘certainly checked his temper and tongue when he was in the vicinity of the temple’ (Narayan, “Around the Temple” The Storyteller’s World, 133). “Old Man of the Temple” is a ghost story, the ideal kind of narrative for the art and skill of the Talkative Man. It deals with the supernatural in its purest form. It has a fairy tale opening with emphasis on time. The tone of the narrator is vibrant with mystic elements at every point. The narrator however adopts a balanced approach as he fills the narrative with the mystic and at the same time he delineates the driver with skeptic overtones because he doubts whether the driver was drunk or he was not’(Narayan, “Old Man and the Temple” Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories, 53). The use of myth is another very prominent aspect of the narrative design structured by the Talkative Man. The Talkative Man makes use of the myth of parkaya pravesh and also the concept of union after death. It is noticeable that in this narrative, both the myths used by the narrator are purely of oriental origin with even the remotest reference to the west. The fantasy in the narrative is manifest purely in form of the supernatural and unlike the previously discussed narrative, there is no shred of the elements of synchronicity and coincidence. “The Snake Song” is another prominent short story of Narayan which makes good use of the supernatural and is structured on the ancient Indian concept of atithi devo bhav. It is thus a pronounced ratification of the author’s debt to classical Indian volumes of knowledge and learning.

“The Roman Image” and “Lawley Road” offer a sharp ironic contrast to the narratives discussed above. In either of these narratives, the Talkative Man is not a mind confined to rustic and rural life of a distant village quite away from the highway, but, on the contrary, he is a man with handsome participation in the urban world with ease and comfort without any hesitation or withdrawal. The stories are narrated with obvious satirical overtones. The narrative is structured around a stone image which is thought to be of great archeological importance having ‘an entirely new set of possibilities’ (Narayan, “The Roman Image” Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories, 33). The narrative satirizes the research activities related to archeology and the Talkative Man discovers that the stone image is nothing but a contraption of a local image maker ultimate leading to the painful realization of the officer that they ‘have made’ themselves ‘ mighty fools before the whole world’ (Narayan, “The Roman Image” Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories, 37). Lawley Road in the same cadence is a mockery of the bureaucratic process followed by the high officials for the trivial and insignificant tasks. The Talkative Man is again an urban mind and the protagonist who eventually proves to be a ridiculous victim of the bureaucratic processes. In both these narratives, the story teller is a sophisticated but vigilant urban intellect sensitive to the discrepancies prevailing in the respective system. The Talkative Man does not pick up the myth from the ancient books of knowledge and learning but focuses his satirical motif on the what he has experienced, enjoyed and suffered. It seems somewhat antithetic to say that the knowledge gained by intensive reading of the newspaper suffices for the structuring a satirical narrative but it is also worth noticing that the Talkative Man is very much a part and parcel of the modern urban set up and restricting his experiences to rural and rustic life does not seem convincing. The easy inference that can be drawn from the experiences enshrined in the stories narrated by the Talkative Man are the experiences that pervade across numerous planes of India.

It can easily be inferred, that The Talkative Man is not just a fictional off spring of Narayan’s creative faculties but he also represents the fictional world of R K Narayan in micro-dimensions. Narayan’s  thematic preferences and technical innovations seeks apt representation in The Talkative Man. He fuses the paradoxical implications of the rustic and the sophisticated; of urban and rural of adherence to the primitive and conformity to the modern. Technically also The Talkative Man shows unusual fondness for the use of irony and paradox which confirms his identity as a miniaturized representation of his creator.

It is thus clear that the Talkative Man of Narayan is a great creation attributed to the master who performs many paradoxical functions at precise simultaneity. He is a rural soul who often puts on an urban mind and functions in the urban set up as comfortably as he sits amidst the rural folk and narrates the story. He believes in intuitive logic and hence takes into account various faiths and beliefs that contribute to the making of man’s mind in and around Malgudi and he is also the man with frequent inclination towards logic and order that eventually creep into. It can thus easily be inferred that the Talkative Man makes use of all those elements for which his creator is known around the globe.

References;

Iyengar, K R S, Indian English Writings. 1962; New Delhi: Sterling, 1996.

Narayan, R K. My Days- A Memoir. Mysore: Indian Thought Publication, 1975.

Narayan, R K. The Talkative Man. 1983; Mysore; Indian Thought Publication, 1996.

Narayan, R K. “The World of A Storyteller” A Storyteller’s World. New Delhi, Penguin, 1989. 

Narayan, R K. “Old Man of the Temple” Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories.  Mysore; Indian Thought Publication, 1999.