The Second Stanza The second Stanza is about him feeling sorry for himself and his ‘condition’. The metaphysical side of his love and feeling of self –pity are openly paced in this stanza and this adds to the effect of the raw emotion he writes about in this stanza. The first two lines “’Twere wholsomer for mee, that winter did Benight the glory of this place,” is saying that his current state of mind and emotion would be more suited to the cold barren landscape of winter rather then the lush colourful garden he is in. The line “These trees to laugh, and mocke mee to my face:” is an addition to the preference of winter by his mood. He is trying to tell us about how he feels at odds with nature and how he feels that all these happy summer moods going around seem to be mocking him. After this there is the line “Love let mee Some senseless peece of this place bee:” He is addressing love as if it is a real person and asking it to make him into one of the inanimate garden objects such as a fountain (“or a stone fountaine”) So he cannot feel the pain this relationship (or lack of one) gives to him.
The Final Stanza Is about Donne feeling aggrieved about his rejection by this lady and so he makes certain sexist statements. This shows he is angered at the opposite sex because he was rejected. The first two lines “Hither with christall vyals, lovers come, and take my teares, which are loves wine” are continuing the metaphor of him being the stone fountain. With this he pictures a couple come up and collect some water from him (which represents his tears) and leave with it in a vial. The Line “For all are false. That tast not just like mine;” is talking about how no one has really tears of emotional pain except him. All other tears are fake except for his, for true emotions are not displayed through tears of others. The attack on women starts with the lines “Nor can you judge womans thoughts by teares, Than by her shadow, what she weares” because this shows that he believes that woman do not cry for real, he believes they just turn on the tears like a tap. He says that womans tears tell you as much about what they are feeling as does their shadow tell you about what they are wearing. The attack on women continues and reveals to us why he is having this attack at woman. “O perverse sexe, where none is true but shee, who’s therefore true, because her truth kills mee.” He is saying that no woman on earth is faithful to their husbands except the woman he falls in love with, and her faithfulness to her husband is killing him because it is not him she is being faithful to.
‘Twickenham Garden’ is a meta-physical poem because it focuses on love and feeling. It also describes most things with metaphors which makes it seem more meta-physical.
2) The imagery Donne uses that is related to seasons and nature is useful for him to get the message of love and sorrow across using different seasons. The image of spring as the season of love is a common metaphor used by most poets so Donne turns this on its head by using summer to express how the happiness of others makes him feel like he is being mocked. He writes about how it would be better for him to be in winter because of his depression over the fact that this woman will not cheat on her husband to be with Donne. He writes about hoe the winters would “benight the glory of this place” and so kill the plants and make it bare and cold. That is a metaphorical representation of Donne’s heart at that moment in time. He also says “But that I may not this disgrace Indure” This is about the woman rejecting him because she wants to stay with her husband. Donne calls this a ‘disgrace’ and this could be a reference to the change from summer to winter because as the seasons changed the plants would lose their foliage and colour and turn barren. And this could be called a disgrace to the garden previous beauty.
3) In this poem Donne sounds very fed up with love after he was rejected. He is also very critical of woman and the beauty of the Lady’s garden. In ‘The Flea’ Donne is trying to persuade a woman to have sex with him because their fluids have already mixed in the ‘flea’. In the flea his language is soft and persuasive. He tries to be as nice as possible because this is a woman he really wants. But in ‘Twickenham Garden’ his tone, while bitter, isn’t too hostile towards the woman. This gives us the impression that he doesn’t want her to dislike him but he still wants to state his point. In ‘The Flea’ Donne’s attitude to love is not too obvious. But we can tell from the way he is speaking to this girl that he knows that love is important to her, or t woman in general. Donne shows that he is sexist in this because it makes it seem as though he thinks all women only want love then they will sleep with him. In ‘Twickenham Garden’ his attitude to love is bitter and resentful. He talks about how it makes him feel happier in winter and how it seems that the trees are mocking him with their happiness.
