Thou shalt not laugh in this leaf, Muse. by John Donne (Poem, Summary, Paraphrase, Analysis & Questions)

 

Thou shalt not laugh in this leaf, Muse.

by John Donne

(Poem, Summary, Paraphrase, Analysis & Questions) 

Thou shalt not laugh in this leaf, Muse.

Thou shalt not laugh in this leaf, Muse, nor they

Whom any pitious passion hath made gray:

Let not the foolish youth laugh at thy name,

The virgins sigh, and whisper, ‘Lo, Donne’s flame!’

Do thou smile, Muse? Ah, no: thou weep’st, and I

The worse; for though then thou mak’st me sigh, I die.

Thou art a Muse, and I a poet; I too

Live with thee, and for thee; and live worse now.

For I am far beyond mine art, and Thou

In most things so too: Muse, thou and I do owe

Two debts: we must not laugh, nor weep, but be

Just to the world, and meek and patient be.

 

So it be just, and to the truth inclined,

Though it spare neither sex, age, nor mind,

I may speak what I see, and do no crime.

For he, who to his wife is less than kind,

Is mine, and I may speak: a mind is mine.

Why should I not speak of my friend that’s dead,

Who in his life, was virtuous and wise?

Why should not I, with equal license, read

This world? Why may not this or that man rise

To godly knowledge, though not godly deeds?

 

Summary

Lines 1–2:

The poet addresses his Muse and forbids her from laughing in this poem. He also warns that others—especially those who have been emotionally hurt or made “gray” with sorrow—should not laugh either.

 

Lines 3–4:

Donne cautions young people not to mock this poem or his intentions. He also mentions that virgins should not romanticize or gossip about his poetic passion, saying, “Look, it’s Donne’s love.”

 

Lines 5–6:

He asks the Muse if she is smiling—but answers that she is weeping, and that makes things worse. Her sorrow causes him pain as well; he sighs and says it feels like he’s dying from it.

 

Lines 7–9:

Donne notes that both he and the Muse share the role of creators—she is a Muse, and he is a poet. They live for each other, but their lives have grown more difficult. Both are now beyond their earlier talents or comforts.

 

Lines 10–12:

They owe two things to the world: not to laugh and not to weep. Instead, they must behave justly, meekly, and patiently.

 

Lines 13–15:

Donne declares that if what he says is true and fair, then he is not committing a crime, even if his words criticize anyone, regardless of gender, age, or intelligence.

 

Lines 16–18:

He asserts his right to speak about what he sees. For instance, if a man is unkind to his wife, Donne claims he has the right to call that out. He affirms that expressing thoughts and truths is within his moral rights.

 

Lines 19–20:

He questions why he should not speak about a deceased friend who was virtuous and wise during his life. Just because the friend is no longer alive doesn’t mean Donne must stay silent about him.

 

Lines 21–23:

He extends that right to examine and speak about the living world too. Donne asks why he shouldn’t be allowed to speak of this world—its behaviors, characters, or faults.

 

Line 24:

He closes by noting that people may gain spiritual understanding even if they don’t always perform holy or moral deeds.

 

Line-by-line Paraphrase

Line 1:

“Thou shalt not laugh in this leaf, Muse, nor they”

You, my Muse, must not laugh in this poem (this page), and neither should others.

 

Line 2:

“Whom any pitious passion hath made gray:”

Not even those who have been aged or saddened by deep sorrow should laugh at it.

 

Line 3:

“Let not the foolish youth laugh at thy name,”

Let not immature young people mock your (the Muse’s) name or purpose.

 

Line 4:

“The virgins sigh, and whisper, ‘Lo, Donne’s flame!’”

Let not young women sigh or whisper romantically, saying, “Look, it’s Donne’s love or passion!”

 

Line 5:

“Do thou smile, Muse? Ah, no: thou weep’st, and I”

Are you smiling, Muse? No—you are crying, and I...

 

Line 6:

“The worse; for though then thou mak’st me sigh, I die.”

...am worse off because your sorrow makes me sigh, and that sighing feels like I am dying.

 

Line 7:

“Thou art a Muse, and I a poet; I too”

You are a Muse, and I am a poet;

 

Line 8:

“Live with thee, and for thee; and live worse now.”

I live with your inspiration and for your sake, but my life has become more difficult now.

 

Line 9:

“For I am far beyond mine art, and Thou”

Because I have gone beyond the limits of my art (my poetic skill), and you (the Muse) have too,

 

Line 10:

“In most things so too: Muse, thou and I do owe”

In most things, you also have changed. Muse, you and I owe something...

 

Line 11:

“Two debts: we must not laugh, nor weep, but be”

We owe two things: we should neither laugh nor cry, but instead...

 

Line 12:

“Just to the world, and meek and patient be.”

...be fair to the world and remain humble and patient.

 

Line 13:

“So it be just, and to the truth inclined,”

As long as what I say is fair and truthful,

 

Line 14:

“Though it spare neither sex, age, nor mind,”

Even if it criticizes men or women, the young or old, or the intelligent or foolish,

 

Line 15:

“I may speak what I see, and do no crime.”

I am free to speak what I observe, and it is not a crime.

 

Line 16:

“For he, who to his wife is less than kind,”

For example, if a man is unkind to his wife,

 

Line 17:

“Is mine, and I may speak: a mind is mine.”

He is my concern too, and I have the right to speak—my mind (conscience and intellect) belongs to me.

 

Line 18:

“Why should I not speak of my friend that’s dead,”

Why shouldn’t I talk about my dead friend...

 

Line 19:

“Who in his life, was virtuous and wise?”

...who was good and wise during his lifetime?

 

Line 20:

“Why should not I, with equal license, read”

Why shouldn't I, with the same freedom, examine...

 

Line 21:

“This world? Why may not this or that man rise”

...this world and its people? Why shouldn’t this or that person...

 

Line 22:

“To godly knowledge, though not godly deeds?”

...gain spiritual understanding even if their actions are not perfectly holy?

 

Analysis in Detail

Historical and biographical setting

Donne drafted his five satires in the early‐to‐mid 1590s, while he was still a law student at the Inns of Court and long before his famous religious conversion. London’s political and ecclesiastical worlds were tense: Elizabeth I’s government was anxious about Catholic plots and printed libels, and the Church of England was cracking down on non‑conforming voices. Satire, a genre associated with Juvenal and Persius, allowed a writer to criticize vice while nominally defending virtue. Donne models Satire V on that Roman tradition, updating it for a Protestant, legalistic society increasingly sensitive to public “scandal.” The poem therefore doubles as both personal manifesto and social commentary: it asks what a poet may say when everyone—from bawdy courtiers to pious puritans—claims the right to silence him.

 

Speaker, addressee, and dramatic tension

From the first line, the speaker directly apostrophizes his Muse. Instead of summoning her to song, he muzzles her: “Thou shalt not laugh.” That inverted invocation instantly establishes tension. The Muse represents inspired speech; laughter betokens liberating wit. By forbidding laughter, the poet dramatizes the felt pressure to self‑censor. Yet the prohibition is immediately complicated because those who are “pitious” (full of suffering) must also refrain from amusement. Donne thus folds the private relationship between poet and Muse into a larger social circle, implying that all parties—artist, victim, onlooker—risk moral or emotional harm if the poet slips into mere jest.

 

Tone and stance within Donne’s satirical sequence

Unlike the first four satires, which bristle with overt invective, Satire V feels somber, almost penitential. Its tone hovers between melancholy self‑doubt and stern ethical resolve. Lines 5–9 underscore the paradox: the Muse weeps, the poet “dies,” because the burden of truthful speech threatens the very source of inspiration. Nevertheless, the pair refuse both laughter (levity) and tears (sentimental withdrawal). Their chosen tone is a studied meekness that masks, yet sustains, moral courage. The strategy recalls Juvenal’s claim that indignation breeds the satirist: anger, properly disciplined, fuels truthful rebuke.

 

Argument and logical progression

The central claim appears in lines 13‑15: as long as the poet’s speech is “just” and “to the truth inclined,” no social category—sex, age, or intellect—is sacrosanct. From that premise Donne unfurls three brief case studies: (1) the unkind husband, (2) the virtuous dead friend, (3) the living world at large. Each example widens the scope of permissible critique, moving from a private domestic sin to public commemoration to universal moral surveillance. The logical momentum shows that once truthful speech is admitted in one domain, it must extend everywhere, or society slips into hypocrisy.

 

Stylistic features

Donne’s hallmark wit survives even under restraint. He packs dense legal diction (“crime,” “license,” “ow[e] two debts”) beside theological diction (“godly knowledge,” “virtue”). The fusion mimics Renaissance humanism, where moral philosophy, civil law, and theology intersected. Syntactic inversions and enjambments keep the iambic pentameter unsettled, mirroring the poem’s anxious conscience. For instance, the line “Live with thee, and for thee; and live worse now” breaks rhythmically after the semicolon, creating a small breathless plunge that enacts the worsening state he describes.

 

Theological undercurrent

While Donne was not yet an Anglican priest, he was steeped in the era’s Protestant insistence on individual conscience. The poem defends the right—and duty—of private judgment: one must call out sin where one sees it. Yet Donne is acutely aware of the fallen speaker’s own frailty; he pairs the Muse’s tears with his “sigh” and near “death,” acknowledging that prophetic authority extracts a personal cost.

 

Classical echoes and deviations

Juvenal’s Satire I famously begins with the question “Why not speak, when to speak is reason?” Donne echoes that rationale, but he replaces Juvenal’s fiery rage with a cooler, almost Augustinian humility. By twice repeating “Why should I not speak…?” he rehearses the classical libertas dicendi—the liberty of speaking—while couching it in Reformation rhetoric of conscience and grace. His closing concession—that people may rise “to godly knowledge, though not godly deeds”—betrays a typically Donnian paradox: knowledge without action is insufficient, yet he still hopes that intellectual illumination can precede moral reform.

 

Meter and sound

Nominally, the poem follows iambic pentameter couplets, but Donne permits irregularities (trochaic or spondaic substitutions, feminine endings) that crack the formal surface. This broken quality aligns with the thematic refusal of simple laughter or smooth consolation. Caesuras, often marked by dashes or strong commas, slow the voice and underscore the “meek and patient” posture he prescribes.

 

Conclusion: purpose and enduring relevance

By poem’s end, Donne locates the satiric vocation in a fragile space: a poet must neither capitulate to frivolous laughter nor collapse in private sorrow; instead, he must steward an austere joy that speaks truth without cruelty. Satire V therefore meditates on the ethics of criticism itself. In an age of public shaming and polarized discourse, Donne’s struggle—how to reprove vice responsibly, with neither spite nor silence—remains strikingly current.

 

Possible Exam Questions

What does Donne ask his Muse not to do in the opening line of Satire V?

 

Who are the different groups of people Donne refers to in the first stanza, and what does he caution them against?

 

According to Donne, what two things do he and his Muse owe to the world?

 

Why does Donne say he has the right to speak about an unkind husband or a dead friend?

 

What is meant by the line “Why may not this or that man rise / To godly knowledge, though not godly deeds?”

 

Examine the moral and poetic responsibilities that Donne discusses in Satire V. How does he define the role of the poet in society?

 

Discuss the tone of Satire V. How does Donne balance between restraint and righteous speech?

 

How does Satire V reflect John Donne’s views on truth-telling, censorship, and freedom of expression?

 

In Satire V, Donne presents a tension between artistic freedom and moral accountability. Discuss with reference to the text.

 

Compare Satire V with one of Donne’s earlier satires in terms of tone, theme, and poetic technique.

 

What view of truth and justice does Donne put forward in Satire V?

 

How does Donne portray the challenges of being a moral observer and speaker in a corrupt world?

 

Comment on the significance of sorrow and restraint in the poem. Why does Donne reject both laughter and weeping?

 

Analyze how Satire V engages with the concept of poetic conscience.

 

Give a critical appreciation of Satire V, focusing on its style, tone, and philosophical outlook.

 

“Thou shalt not laugh in this leaf, Muse”—Discuss how the opening line sets the mood for the rest of the poem.