Analysis of Woman's Constancy by John Donne

Woman's Constancy

BY JOHN DONNE

Now thou has loved me one whole day,

Tomorrow when you leav’st, what wilt thou say?

Wilt thou then antedate some new-made vow?

Or say that now

We are not just those persons which we were?

Or, that oaths made in reverential fear

Of Love, and his wrath, any may forswear?

Or, as true deaths true marriages untie,

So lovers’ contracts, images of those,

Bind but till sleep, death’s image, them unloose?

Or, your own end to justify,

For having purposed change and falsehood, you

Can have no way but falsehood to be true?

Vain lunatic, against these ‘scapes I could

Dispute and conquer, if I would,

Which I abstain to do,

For by tomorrow, I may think so too.

Analysis:

                      This is a seventeen line lyric poem on love penned by John Donne between 1592 and 1598. This poetry might be spoken by two entirely different characters.

                   

                     One is a lover who seems almost unconscious of the outside world. He is assured by the knowledge of love returned by a woman or perhaps his wife.

               The other is roué, the one who mocks the Petrarchan poets’ attempts to defy a woman, and exposes the shameless motives of her behavior with acid wisdom of wide experience.

                 This poem showcases the brilliant inventive wit of John Donne which proves his originality. He, in the poem addresses his mistress in blunt and unromantic terms. He shows the practiced understanding of insincerity. It is a miracle that she has loved him for the whole day and how can she find an excuse to drop him? It is important to note how she will justify her capriciousness.

                    It feels secure to say that Donne was the first English poet to call his mistress a lunatic (a madwoman). By using this abusive term in the context of love poetry, he shows how far he is prepared to challenge accepted ideas and practices. He breaks the idea that a mistress should be treated as a remote goddess. According to Donne, she is not even a convincing liar and this lover rejects her hypocritical excuse with a harsh insult.

                  Instead of following the tradition like other poets of convincing and begging for favors, Donne invents an unkind apology which he knows she will offer him. Donne here speaks like a cynical realist. The use of ingenious excuses are the most characteristic feature of ‘Metaphysical’ poem and in fact, proves Donne’s wit.

                Stylistically, if we try to look closely at the poem it seems to be a dramatic monologue. Just like Dr. Faustus’s last monologue deals with his repentance before God or a philosophical soliloquy of existentialism of Hamlet which shows true renaissance spirit, this lyric is, in the same manner, deals with love and the problems in love faced by a lover. The way Donne has used irony in this poem is remarkable. Donne uses one paradoxical argument after another.

                         In a nutshell, it can be said that the poem begins abruptly without setting and the language is plain, simple and unromantic in a straightforward way with casual expressions. It does not include literary decoration. This poem proves a strong masculine voice in mockery of a woman.