Similarities and Differences in John Donne and George Herbert's Poetry

In Donne's Holy Sonnet 14, I found some rather interesting things, especially when I consider how they relate to and are different from Herbert's Love (3), another poem. Each poem uses some creative subtleties in word choice, tone, timing (in terms of presenting ideas within the poem), and most importantly, imagery.

In Donne's poem, in the first line there is an image of the Holy Trinity, expressed as a "three-personed God" (Donne 1). I felt that this was particularly interesting because there seems to be a sort of double meaning present in this first image. In this moment Donne describes the Holy Trinity first, then expresses the same supposed three people, except that the word "God" seems to contradict, in an odd way, the notion of three separate Gods.

Herbert's piece has a similar kind of opening imagery. His first phrase, "Love bade me welcome," (Herbert 1) has, I think, that same kind of possibility to be read in at least two different ways. When I read Herber's first phrase, "Love" initially seemed to create a notion of an emotion. However, I can also make a connection with a person at this moment, because Herbert also writes "bade me welcome," which for me creates a poetic image of a person attempting to offer the feeling of welcome to the author. Like Donne's opening line, then, I think a connection can be made between the two poems in these opening lines with respect to what I would call "unseen personalities;" unseen in the sense that each initial image in both poems can easily be interpreted as perhaps God, and a lot of times in writing and in discussions (all across our histories), I think people tend to think of God as an unseen, rather unexplainable presence, like a feeling, as both are hard to describe, except when referred to in the form of people-God as Jesus or some other humanistic figure, and emotions in terms of how we see people themselves express those feelings.

Later in line 3, the image of Love is still expressed with a capital "L," so I thought that perhaps in this moment Herbert was trying to evoke the idea of a human-like personality. To support this even more, in the third and fifth lines, this "Love" is then given more humanistic qualities (as it was given by the action of "bade me welcome") when Herbert describes this "character" as "quick-eyed" (3) and then an action of "sweetly questioning" (5). I felt that these details were not ones usually attributed to things or emotions, so that made me think that perhaps "Love" at this point is a person; perhaps even a woman, as the details seem somewhat feminine.

In the second stanza in line seven, the narrator has a moment when he actually interacts with Love, and his brief conversation centers around the idea of worth. At this point, I began to further question who or what exactly the character of Love is, because I considered that worth is not generally something that two characters discuss with one another, especially if it seems, as it does with these two, that they have just met. So, I thought that perhaps the notion that maybe Love is perhaps not a woman, but some other being; one that would concern himself with the worth of someone else.

In line 10, the narrator says "I cannot look on thee," and that's when I began to consider the possibility that Love is God. I felt this because I interpreted the narrator's words in line 10 as a sort of admittance of sin, which supports the idea of worth that Herbert was describing in earlier lines. Within this particular moment in line 10, I felt that Herbert's line here was also expressing a sense of shame, which I felt was emphasized by how this moment seems to show the narrator's (mis)understanding of God's forgiveness, which is undoubtedly believed to be unconditional.

Line 12 is the moment when the notion that Love is in fact God really became clearer to me, mainly because of the detail of Love asking "Who made the eyes but I?" which is, because of the detail of "made," perhaps something that God would ask if we were to question his connection to us. The connection between Love and God is made absolutely clear in line 13, when the narrator actually addresses Love as "Lord."

Another large part of both poems is definitely the subject matter of God's treatment os us, since ultimately, despite the differences in the timing in which each author depicts the secondary character as God, both poems describe that relationship with Him, both possible and genuine, which is another idea I can discuss in terms of its effectiveness upon readers.

Given that God is at the center of both poems' meanings, I think that a few more comparisons and contrasts can be made with respect to our feelings of God's treatment of us, through each poem's tones, word choices, and imagery, which in each poem seem to fit nicely together, even though each poem is written by a different author at different times.

In each poem there seems to be an element of doubt within the minds of the narrators, and yet each makes a point to lessen the blow, so to speak, and allow the narrator to gain some confidence and a realization that their sins aren't as cumbersome as they had once thought them to be. In Donne's poem, though, that doubt is perhaps not quite the kind of doubt that one would think the author would include in a poem dealing with this particular kind of relationship. The feeling in Holy Sonnet 14 is rather one of intense fervor or zeal for God. The narrator in this poem seems to want, in a way, God to harm him, because he uses words like "batter, knock, break, blow and burn," and I interpret that as support of the idea that this particular character is perhaps a bit too sure of his relationship with God, because I think that those are somewhat strong verbs to use when talking about a close, personal relationship. This relationship is further complicated a few moments later because the narrator says "Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend/But is captived, and proves weak or untrue" (Donne 7-8). At this point the narrator seems to be saying that his sense of reason is too weak for his defense to make any difference, and although he believes that it does exist, he feels that because he is "betrothed unto [God's] enemy" (10) that it is hopeless for him to be relinquished of this burden now.

After this moment of extreme despair, though, the tone of the poem seems to lessen in harshness somewhat. Even though Donne still uses language that seems strong, like "divorce me" (11), there is now a tiny sense of hope, made even more possible by the last couple of lines, wherein Donne uses words like "enthrall" which has the double meaning of 'enslave' or 'enchant,' and "ravish," which can either mean 'rape' or 'overwhelm with wonder.' I think that this double meaning allows for readers, while the feeling of hope may not be explicit, to at least have the freedom to interpret those last few moments in a different way than the opening moments, which are much more strange and uncomfortable, given the hopeful feelings many religious persons have in many societies.

Both poets are undoubtedly concerning themselves with God's relationship with us as people, yet each refers to God not in an outright manner, but rather using comparisons to a woman (as Herbert does), or creating a different sense of relations than we're accustomed to seeing in poetry, as Donne does. I think that perhaps each author is expressing in prose people's hesitance about life after death, as both poems seem to emphasize sin, but do it in a way in which they can almost immediately illustrate the connection of unconditional forgiveness. Perhaps each author is allowing for those unsure of where they stand with God, despite the many poetic instances when God's love is described as unconditional, to have an opportunity to release some of their trepidations about death. Perhaps illustrating instances, as both authors have done, in which the narrators were both taken in by God regardless of how much they thought they had sinned, will help readers as they come across these poems feel a little more hope about what's next.