Abstract

“FALSHOOD IS WORSE THAN HATE”: WOMEN’S INCONSTANCY IN JOHN DONNE’S POETRY

Maha Qahtan Sulaiman

Volume: 9 Issue: 1 2019

Abstract:

John Donne‟s status as a love poet is based on his lyrics, written throughout his life, and expressing powerful occupation in the poet‟s mentality. Donne‟s love poems range from intense physical love to spiritual affection and reveal diverse attitudes from scepticism to trust and consent. His love poems reflect his personal involvement with several women, some of his affairs were lifelong and conjugal,and otherswere passing and short-lived. Because most of his poems are based on true episodes of the poet‟s secular love, they are characterized by extraordinary power, truthfulness, and earnestness. Donne believes that true love should involve both physical pleasures and spiritual emotions. This study, however,examines the inconstancy of women in Donne‟s poetry in relation to his prose work “A Defence of Womens Inconstancy”. The study discloses the paradox as to the disparatenessof Donne‟s cold logic in the essay and the suffering of the male speaker of his poems because of the inconstancy of his mistress.

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References

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