Compare and contrast the attitudes to love addressed in

Authors Avatar

Compare and contrast the attitudes to love addressed in “Loves Alchemy” and “Twicknam Garden”

Twicknam Garden was a poem written by John Donne in 1607. It is one of John Donne’s late pieces of work and is thought to be written about his patron and his feelings for her. Compared to his patron he was a much lower class, almost a beggar compared to her. Twicknam Garden shows a very unique outlook on love, it shows definate bitterness towards love, but in a more reserved way than Loves Alchemy, Twicknam Garden disdains love, but shows some respect towards the feeling. Whereas Loves Alchemy holds a completely different outlook and resentment to the feeling completely and wishes that this feeling had never been felt at all.

Donne starts off Twicknam Garden with

“Blasted with sighs, and surrounded with tears”

This shows he is very emotional about the subject, and even thinking of it makes him cry. He then goes on to say he wishes to find a cure for this feeling, to receive a new feeling, and to stop the pain he feels from his love for his patron:

Join now!

“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 ...

This is a preview of the whole essay