The Relic
BY JOHN DONNE
When my grave is broke up again
Some second guest to entertain,
(For graves have learn'd that woman head,
To be to more than one a bed)
And he that digs it, spies
A bracelet of bright hair about the bone,
Will he not let'us alone,
And think that there a loving couple lies,
Who thought that this device might be some
way
To make their souls, at the last busy day,
Meet at this grave, and make a little stay?
If this fall in a time, or land,
Where mis-devotion doth command,
Then he, that digs us up, will bring
Us to the bishop, and the king,
To make us relics; then
Thou shalt be a Mary Magdalen, and I
A something else thereby;
All women shall adore us, and some men;
And since at such time miracles are sought,
I would have that age by this paper taught
What miracles we harmless lovers wrought.
First, we lov'd well and faithfully,
Yet knew not what we lov'd, nor why;
Difference of sex no more we knew
Than our guardian angels do;
Coming and going, we
Perchance might kiss, but not between those
meals;
Our hands ne'er touch'd the seals
Which nature, injur'd by late law, sets
free;
These miracles we did, but now alas,
All measure, and all language, I should
pass,
Should I tell what a miracle she was.
Analysis-
John Donne’s present poem is an
interpretation on the superstitions in regard to the pure platonic concept of love.
Donne ponders on the point of time after his death, the time when his grave
will be opened and his bones will be thrown out to make a spacious room for
another occupant.
The opening words seem to have no
conceivable application to a love poem. Donne here tries to show his
unpredictable workings of his mind. By finding a path from the macabre idea of
digging out the notion of the holy relics, he turns to a loving relationship with
his mistress.
The metaphysical conceit lies in bringing
together these ideas together in a very unforced manner. The entire poem
exhibits the expertise of steady and determined thought from unexpected
opening. Hence, the poem “the Relic” opens quietly. In the opening, Donne says
that the gravedigger comes across a bone encircled with a bracelet of his
mistress’ hair.
Perhaps the gravedigger may
suppose that there lay ‘a loving couple’ hoping to be reunited at the Judgment
day, so he will leave them undisturbed. If this should happen during a period
of ‘misdevotion’ or false religion, the gravedigger will carry these relics to
the bishop to be venerated as holy things: her hair seemed to be belong to
another Mary Magdalena. Together they will be adored as a miracle is expected
of them.
The great miracle lay in
spiritual and philosophical love and not in physical relationship. And the
miracle is in her miraculous self as it is beyond the power of poetry or any
language that can describe.
In a nutshell, it can be said that
the first two stanzas depicts the fantastic wit, Donne reaches to the inner
subject matter in the third stanza and a deep emotion can be recognized in his
change of voice. He has proved his scholarship by playing with ideas of grave
digging and the Last Judgment in such a light manner. However, it would be
secure to say that Donne has chosen this unpretentious form with a purpose.
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