It is obvious that some advancements have inspired John Donne, just by looking at the titles of his poems: An Anatomy of the World (advancements in medical sciences), at the round earth's imagined corners (the acceptance of the theory that the earth is round rather than having things like corners), If poisonous minerals and if that tree (geology), Love's alchemy (chemistry references). In “The Good-Morrow” he writes about the simple naive pleasures of childhood “But suck’d on country pleasure, childishly?” This is a reference to an ideal rustic country upbringing, where some of his existentialist philosophy comes from i.e. essentially one’s connection to nature and also to God; the idea that God is manifested through nature. In the second stanza, he refers to new discoveries “Let sea-discoveries to new worlds have gone, let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown, let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.” This has the effect of expanding the idea of love, being both intensely personal and as large as the world. In the final stanza, he writes “Where can we find two better hemispheres without sharp north, without declining west? Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;” Here we have images that love inevitably must die especially if the mixture wasn’t right in the first place. In Donne’s time disease and death were attributed to an imbalance of elements or humours in the body.
In “The Sun Rising” we can see some of Donne’s arrogance; the opening line “Busy old fool, unruly sun, Why dost though thus, Through windows, and through curtains call on us?” Here the poet is mocking in tone why does the sun rise? “I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink,” here he implies he’s more powerful than the sun. The reference to “Indias of spice” once again refers to the expanding discoveries and travel, allowing trade with foreign countries and importing exotic spices.
Here are some religious titles: a selection of Holy Sonnets, The Canonization, A hymn to God the Father, Air and Angels... The list is extensive. The Litany followed the Trinity in Catholic sequence. The Temple was written as a sermon
In “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” the title implies that this might be a religious poem, the word mourning being a holy affair, he also mentions “To tell the laity our love” the laity being the non-religious section of society. However, the poem does not seem directed at God but at the earth and science. “But trepidation of the spheres” would be referring to both the movement of the earth and the new discoveries of Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo and the old view of “the music of the spheres” often spoken of in Shakespeare, when man thought Earth was the centre of the universe. “As stiff twin compasses are two, Thy soul the fix’d foot, makes no show To move, but doth, if th’other do.” here he explores the idea that the soul could be centred and his loved one connected by some other force. “And though it in the centre sit, Yet when the other far doth roam, It leans, and harkens after it,” it almost feels like he is plotting a map.
Through the work of the four fathers of the astronomical revolution, (Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton) both the practice of astronomy and man's view of the universe were transformed. Astronomers rejected the Ptolemaic view of the universe that had held court for centuries. They supplanted Ptolemy's earth-centred universe with a new sun-centred system. These modern thinkers, far ahead of their time, persevered against the mockery, apathy, and anger of their peers. Eventually, through Newton's synthesis of math, physics, and astronomy, they triumphed.
The work of these astronomers shook the world. They denied everything that humans had held certain for centuries. The excitement and confusion that these astronomers left in their wake is reflected in John Donne's seventeenth century poem “An Anatomy of the World – The First Anniversary.” He wrote, “And new Philosophy calls all in doubt. The element of fire is quite put out…” This means that we have long past the days of discovering fire and are now into a new era. In this poem Donne also marks the rebirth of heretical atomic theory.
“New Philosophy cals all in doubt,
The Element of fire is quite put out,
And freely men confesse, that this world's spent,
When in the Planets, and the Firmament
They seeke so many new; they see that this
Is crumbled out againe to'his Atomis.
'Tis all in pieces, all cohaerence gone.”
(Lines 205-213)
In Twickenham Garden, Donne uses imagery related to nature. In The Good Morrow, Donne refers to the continuing exploration of the globe.
There is one piece of writing by Donne that we are sure Kepler read. In 1611 Donne published, in both Latin and English, the anonymous polemic satire that he called Ignatius, His Conclave. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society, of Jesus--the Jesuit order--had been canonized by Pope Gregory XV in 1622. The Jesuits reduced Donne to rage. In this satire Donne imagines Ignatius in hell seated next to Lucifer with whom he strikes up a friendship. This scene is witnessed by the “I” representing the author who has had “liberty to wander through all places, and to survey and reckon all the roomes, and all the volumes of the heavens, and to comprehend the situation, the dimensions, the nature, the people, and the policy, both of the swimming Ilands, the Planets, and of all those which are fixed in the firmament.” But having given a bold rendering of the appearance of the universe, the narrator backs off. He remarks, “I thinke it an honester part as yet to be silent, than to do Galileo wrong by speaking of it, who of late hath summoned the other worlds, the Stars to come neerer to him, and give him an account of themselves.” Personally I believe that this quote is of great importance because Donne refers to Galileo himself and not his discoveries.
When Donne describes a potential voyage to the moon, he’s obviously pleased with himself due to Galileo's telescope. The voyager can make “new Glasses” which will “draw the Moone, like a boate floating upon the water, as neere the earth as he will.” Now one can just board the “boat.” But, Donne goes on to say, it will be the Jesuits who will get on the now nearby moon-ship in order to establish a “Lunatique Church” on our celestial neighbor. On the subject of the Jesuits, Donne was relentless in his criticism.
The previous year Galileo, using the newly discovered telescope, had found new stars, the moons of Jupiter, and all sorts of new features on our moon. He had published a book--Siderius nuncius, or Starry Messenger--describing these discoveries that created a sensation. Donne had read the book and a year later makes reference to it. But he goes on, “Or to Keepler, who (as himselfe testifies of himselfe) ever since Tycho Braches death hath received it into his care, that no new thing should be done in heaven without his knowledge.” This shows that not only was Donne aware of Kepler, but he even knew that Kepler had inherited Tycho Brahe's position.
The Scientific Revolution 1550-1700 was a time of theorising and discoveries concerning astronomy, physics, biology and mathematics. During Donne's lifetime, the following main scientific theories were raised:
These first two discoveries were new in the time of John Donne's early life: In 1543, Andreas Vesalius published on the fabric of the human body. This is considered to be the first great modern work of science and the foundation of modern biology. In it, Vesalius makes unprecedented observations about the structure of the human body. Also in 1543, Nicolas Copernicus published De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of Celestial Bodies) Copernicus' masterwork; he sets out the heliocentric theory.
In 1584, Giordano Bruno published The Ash-Wednesday Supper, on cause, principle, and unity, and on the infinite universe and its worlds. The renegade Italian monk unfolds his philosophy, the centrepiece of which is the contention that the universe is infinitely large and that the Earth is by no means at the centre of it. For the expression of his thoughts, Bruno is burned at the stake as a heretic.
Then in 1591, Francois Viete invented analytical trigonometry. Viete's invention is essential to the study of physics and astronomy. As well as Galileo Galilei demonstrated the properties of gravity. Galileo demonstrates, from the top of the leaning tower of Pisa, that a one- pound weight and a one hundred-pound weight, dropped at the same moment; hit the ground at the same moment, refuting the contention of the Aristotelian system that the rate of fall of an object is dependent upon its weight. He expounds fully on this demonstration years later in his 1638 Discourse on Two New Sciences.
In 1610, Galileo published: Messenger of the Heavens. Galileo's 24-page booklet describes his telescopic observations of the moon's surface, and of Jupiter's moons, making the Church uneasy. The Inquisition soon warns Galileo to desist from spreading his theories but in 1618, Johannes Kepler revealed his third and final law of planetary motion. Kepler's laws of planetary motion describe the form and operation of planetary orbits, and is the final step leading to the academic rejection of the Aristotelian system
Finally in 1630, Galileo published dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the world. Galileo's magnum opus uses the laws of physics to refute the Aristotelian contention that the Earth is the centre of the solar system and supports the heliocentric Copernican view. Galileo presents the doctrine of uniformity, which claims that the laws of terrestrial physics are no different than the laws of celestial physics.
During the sixteenth century, the Renaissance focus on understanding reality led to a revival of the study of nature. Interest in the fields of botany and anatomy grew rapidly. In Donne’s poem, “The Flea” he uses this small creature to explore the mistaken idea that when two people have sex, their blood intermingles. The result is a neat and concise poem with interesting rhyme and continuity; we are immediately brought into the sexual nature with the words:
“It suck’d me first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea, our two bloods mingled be;”
There is an image placed in our minds of the flea swelling with blood not unlike the male anatomy, the poet envied the flea’s free access to his mistress’s body.
“And pamper’d swells with one blood made of two, And this, alas, is more than we would do.”
He seems to be complaining that the flea gets more physical enjoyment than he does; the flea is connected to the sexuality of its victim in a similar way to the vampire in gothic literature. He remarks that the flea cannot be guilty of anything other than its natural urge thus showing the simplicity of this organism. Adding to this interest, many new observations and specimens were brought back to Europe from the newly opened and explored New World. Artists of the Renaissance sought to better understand their subjects in the world around them, and thus studied the structures, functions, and habits of plants extensively. The medicine of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries emphasized the use of vegetable remedies, and physicians were often the foremost botanists of the time because of the need to distinguish between many plants, foreign and domestic. Books began to appear in which plants were described and portrayed with great skill, and some of the botanical figures of the sixteenth century are considered among the best ever produced.
“To his Mistress Going to Bed” is a truly romantic poem, he undresses his lover with imagery of heaven “Off with that girdle, like heaven’s zone glistering,” as he undresses her, he describes “such beauteous state reveals, As when from flow’ry meads th’hill’s shadow steals.” The clothes are hiding her naked beauty. He compares her to “heaven’s angels” and says he can tell an angel apart from a ghost since instead of setting his hairs on end she gives him an erection. As he explores her body “Before, behind, between, above, below. O my America! my new-found-land,” he compares it to the excitement of discovering the New World. She is more precious than “My mine of precious stones,” and goes on to discuss that in order to join her soul they both need to be undressed “To taste whole joys.” He concludes with the thought that men need to be educated in the ways of women in order to really appreciate them like good books.
The Renaissance set the stage for the astronomy of the sixteenth century by engendering interest in the physical world and its surroundings. By 1510 Leonardo da Vinci had developed many theories on the creation of the universe and the functioning of celestial bodies. In 1528, the French physician Jean Fernal made a calculation of the size of the Earth correct to one percent.
However, these accomplishments are far overshadowed by those of Nicolas Copernicus. Copernicus, a highly educated Pole, studied at university until the age of 30, excelling in classics, medicine, law, theology, and painting, as well as astronomy. He was not a practical astronomer, and only observed a handful of eclipses and oppositions of planets. Rather, he was a student of past observers and a theoretician. He studied the observed motions of heavenly bodies in relation to the accepted geocentric Aristotelian system, which placed the earth at the centre of the solar system, with the sun and planets in orbit. Copernicus' observations led him to conclude that there was something wrong with the geocentric theory. He tested the hypothesis that the earth was in fact in orbit around the sun against the records of observation and found that this heliocentric theory was more feasible.
To conclude Donne was a Renaissance man, he combined wit, understanding, “new philosophy” specifically Copernicanism, alchemy, religion and metaphysics. This is not to say he was an absolute innovator, many of his poems are on topics which occur in other 16th and early 17th century verse such as “The Flea” and “The Dream”. However his way of dealing with the subject matter was wittier and more sceptical, he was a modern thinker not afraid of crossing new frontiers and boundaries and understanding the new order of the universe. Modern in Donne’s terms contained much of the past and his poetry is full of his powerful mind. Although unable as a Catholic to take a degree, he spent three years at Oxford, three at Cambridge; he was a student at the Inns of Court and studied languages and theology. His religious sermons were very learned but he patiently explained his meanings and repeated explanations. He was an enormously popular preacher although he was not a distinguished theologian; his strength lay in his wit and use of words, which were his instruments to explore the new universe.
If one cuts away at the very word “anatomy,” as did speakers of colloquial English in Donne's time, the dissection of parts might lead to an “atomy,” or atom, the smallest piece of matter.
