“Hither I come to seek the spring,
Receive such balms, as else cure everything”
Donne expresses feelings of resentment towards the feelings he possesses, as if they are something external, which have possessed him. This seems more as if he has done something wrong, but does not blame it on himself, blames it on another factor. He cannot take responsibility for his own mistakes, and instead likes to think as if he has been decieved.
“But O, self-traitor”
In Twicknam Garden Donne talks about how love can act as a poison and how it can have more bad effects than beneficial,
“The spider love, which transubstantiates all,
and can convert manna to gall”
Gall being an acidic solutions like vinegar, and saying that love has converted manna (which is either considered as the food god gave to the Israelites, or a sudden gift which gives good fortune). However manna is understood it is obvious that manna would be the feelings felt when one was in love, and however they have been transcended to acidic feelings, burning up inside.
In “Love’s Alchemy,” John Donne sets up an analogy between the Platonists, who try, endlessly, to discover spiritual love, and the alchemists, who in Donne’s time, tried to extract gold from baser metals. Donne is trying to show a different side to love, expressing his beliefs that spiritual love does not exist and those who are searching for it are only wasting their time. He suggests that all love relies on heavily based sexual connections, which is why the first lines give great sexual reference, The poem opens with two lines that lay the groundwork for the analogy and that have a sexual implication. The word “digged” and the image of “love’s mine”, obviously allow for the comparison between the Platonist’s and the alchemists.
Instead of resenting love in this poem, John resents a specific outlook on love, the more spiritual side of love.
In Twicknam Garden Donne talks about either his lover, or love in General being like the snake in the Garden of Eden,
“True paradise, I have the serpent brought.”
In Twicknam Garden Donne is depressed, and wishes to either stop the feeling all together, or to be left alone, and not mocked for feeling this, he wishes it were winter so that the cold frost and the dark weather would reflect his inner feelings, instead of the spring flowers.
“Twere wholesomer for me, that winter did,
Benight the glory of this place,”
He feels he is being mocked by the aesthetic joy of the flowers, and the trees,
“These trees to laugh, and mock me to my face;”
He wishes instead he could be a part of the Garden.
“Make me a mandrake, so I may groan here,
Or a stone fountain weeping out my year”
This can be interpreted in many ways, either he wants to be a stone fountain so his emotions are frozen, and so he feels numb, standing as a statue with his emotions flowing out of him, frozen and halted. Also it could mean that as a statue he would have the benefit of feeling numb, but still being present, and being able to watch his patron, his love pass through the garden, without showing his feelings externally, but still feeling them within.
When he claims he wants to be a senseless part of the Garden, he addresses his patron directly, using a capital L on the beginning of Love.
“Love let me some senseless piece of this place be;”
Twicknam Garden shows Donne in a feeling of Melancholy, whereas in Loves Alchemy, his mind is made up on his view of love, and he is deliberately trying to put a point across, Twicknam Garden is a more emotional poem regarding love, and seems like it was less planned, and less stern in its format.
Donne’s feelings also change through the Stanza’s of Twicknam Garden, with the final stanza being quite critical of women in general, saying that they cannot be trusted.
“And take my tears, which are love’s wine,
and try your mistress’ tears at home,
For all are false, that taste not just like mine”
“Nor can you more judge a woman’s thoughts by tears,
than by her shadow, what she wears”
Shows his ultimate untrusting nature towards women, brought about by his latest passion. Donne says all tears that taste not like his own are false, quite an arrogant and self centered view, but saying something quite profound. No one knows what it is like to feel how another does, people can feel similar, and have been in similar situations, but no one feels the same emotions and feelings when treated in specific ways. This means everyone’s tears would “taste” different, and so some therefore seem false.