The Canonization
by
John Donne
(Text
& Paraphrase)
Text
For God’s sake hold
your tongue, and let me love,
Or chide my palsy, or
my gout,
My five grey hairs,
or ruined fortune flout,
With wealth your
state, your mind with arts improve,
Take you a course,
get you a place,
Observe his Honour,
or his Grace,
Or the King’s real,
or his stamped face
Contemplate; what you
will, approve,
So
you will let me love.
Alas, alas, who’s
injured by my love?
What merchant’s ships
have my sighs drowned?
Who says my tears
have overflowed his ground?
When did my colds a
forward spring remove?
When did the heats
which my veins fill
Add one more to the
plaguy bill?
Soldiers find wars,
and lawyers find out still
Litigious men, which
quarrels move,
Though
she and I do love.
Call us what you
will, we are made such by love;
Call her one, me
another fly,
We are tapers too,
and at our own cost die,
And we in us find the
eagle and the dove,
The phoenix riddle
hath more wit
By us; we two being
one, are it.
So to one neutral
thing both sexes fit
We die and rise the
same, and prove
Mysterious
by this love.
We can die by it, if
not live by love.
And if unfit for
tombs and hearse
Our legend be, it
will be fit for verse;
And if no piece of
chronicle we prove,
we’ll build in
sonnets pretty rooms;
As well a well
wrought urn becomes
The greatest ashes,
as half-acre tombs,
And by these hymns,
all shall approve
Us
canonized for love:
And thus invoke us;
‘You whom reverend love
Made one another’s
hermitage;
You, to whom love was
peace, that now is rage;
Who did the whole
world’s soul contract, and drove
Into the glasses of
your eyes
(So made such
mirrors, and such spies,
That they did all to
you epitomize,)
Countries, towns,
courts: beg from above
A
pattern of your love!
Paraphrase
In
the first stanza, the poet wants his friend, who tries to discourage him from
making love, to keep his mouth shut and allow him to continue his love without
any hindrance. The poet says, just as it is useless for him (poet’s friend) to rebuke
the poet for suffering from diseases like paralysis or gout or baldness or
infirmities like old age or his misfortune, in the same way it is equally
futile for him (poet’s friend) to try to dissuade the poet from making love.
Instead of wasting time in advising the poet, it would be better for him (poet’s
friend) to improve his position by amassing wealth or cultivate his mind by
acquiring knowledge or developing a taste for arts. He (poet’s friend) may
undertake a course of study or secure a position at the court and thereby get a
chance of observing the grace and honour of the king. As a courtier, he (poet’s
friend) will watch the real face of the king (see him in his true colour) or he
(poet’s friend) may enter business and make money and thus see the king’s image
stamped on coins. Let him do whatever he likes but let him (poet’s friend) not
disturb the poet in making love to his beloved.
The
poet further says, alas, none is harmed by his (the poet’s) love-making. His (the
poet’s) sighs have not drowned any merchant ship. His (the poet’s) tears have
not caused any floods, the coldness of his (the poet’s) tears has not prolonged
the winter season or delayed the advent of spring. The heat of his (the poet’s)
passion has not added to the list of persons, who die of plague. Soldiers
continue to fight the wars and the lawyers are busy in their litigation. In
spite of his (the poet’s) love, the normal life of the world continues as usual
(why should then anyone object to his love-making).
The poet
says, his friend will call the poet and his beloved whatever he likes (mad or
funny), but whatever they are, is the result of their love-making. The friend
may call the poet a fly and the poet’s beloved another fly chasing after light.
He may call them candles as they both burn themselves out in mutual love. He
may compare them with the eagle and the dove because both of them are violent
and gentle and prey on each other. Perhaps the legend of the Phoenix would adequately
describe the poet and his beloved. Their two sexes match together so perfectly
as to form a being of unisex, i.e., after they die, they come to life again in
the same form as they were before just as the Phoenix after death arises from
its own ashes. Like the mystery of the Phoenix, their mystery of love will
command respect.
In the
stanza 4, Donne says, if the lovers cannot get immortality by their love, they
can at least die for it. The story of their love may not be worthy of tombs and
monuments, but at any rate it is good enough for the material of poetry. Their
love may not be recorded in volumes of history but it will certainly find
mention in sonnets and lyrics. Just as the ashes of great men are preserved in
an ornamental urn or in tombs covering an area of half acre, in the same way
they will be respected by the world as canonized lovers (saintly lovers). Just
as saints are canonized for the love of God, in the same way they will be
canonized for the sake of love. Their love is pure and selfless.
In the
last stanza he says, that after the lovers have been accepted as saints of
love, people will pray for their blessings saying - “You are the saints of love
who made each other your pilgrimage, for each of you the other was a world in
himself or herself. For others, love was a furious passion but to you love
brought peace and bliss. You saw the reflection of the entire world in each
other’s eyes. You performed the miracle of contracting the world (within your
eyes). In your eyes you saw the countries, towns and courts and thus saw a more
meaningful world. Since you are the saints of love, we pray to God to fashion
our love on your pattern so that we may also love as you did”.
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