Henry Vaughan’s somewhat over optimistic view of death in ‘They are all gone into the world of light’ is contrasted with Donne’s ‘The Apparition’, in which he uses death as a threat.
‘The Apparition’ is a poem which is far from pleasant. It is aimed at his ex-lover and presents her in an extremely unattractive light. The opening line, ‘When by thy scorne, O murdresse, I am dead’ implies that the woman has rejected the poet and subsequently caused his untimely death. This was very plausible at the time, as it was widely accepted that a man could die of a broken heart after rejection. As the poem progresses it becomes fairly evident, through constant sexual references, that this rejection was her refusing to sleep with him.
Donne threatens the woman with his death. He explains that after he is dead ‘Then shall my ghost come to thy bed’, threatening that he will watch over her when she is with other men. He claims that her grounds for not sleeping with him (it is implied that she wished to preserve her virginity) were not true, and he calls her a ‘fain’d vestall’.
He speaks of seeing her ‘in worse armes’, and suggests that she is so voracious in the bedroom that her lover cannot keep up with her. He explains that her lover would soon be spent, ‘Then thy sicke taper will begin to winke’, this claim that her lover would not be able to sustain an erection further emphasises his belief that any man following him will be inferior to himself.
Donne goes on to imply that she chooses her men casually, ‘And he, whose thou art then’. This comment is highly insulting to the woman, thus achieving its desired effect. He then proceeds with perhaps the most hurtful part of the poem. He states that her exhausted lover would rather feign sleep than give her any kind of attention:
‘if thou stirre, or pinch to wake him, thinke
Thou call’st for more,
And in false sleepe will from the shrinke’.
The end of this stanza proclaims that she will end up in a worse position than him, ‘A veryer ghost than I’, for he is not the one being deceived instead of openly rejected.
The closing stanza is a contradiction. He claims that his ‘love is spent’. This can clearly not be true. Why would he go to the effort of writing such a hurtful poem to get back at her if he did not still care? From the last two lines we see the true objective of this piece, ‘I had rather thou shouldst painfully repent, / Than by my threatenings rest still innocent’, he would prefer it if she just slept with him and prevent all of his threats happening, this would suggest that the poem is not aimed at getting back at her after all. Instead it is one last attempt to coax his lady into bed.
In ‘The Apparition’ it was suggested that emotions still exist after death. This also is shown in another of Donne’s poems ‘The Anniversarie’.
This poem starts off very positively. It is a celebration of a year of the couples love. However, to begin with this is not so clear. The opening two lines, ‘All kings, and all their favourites, / All glory of honors, beauties, wits’ could easily be the opening of a poem praising royalty. It is, instead, explaining that time affects everyone:
‘The sun it selfe, which makes times, as they passe,
Is elder by a yeare, now, then it was
When thou and I first one another saw’.
The point of the poem, celebrating a year anniversary, is contradicted in the next stanza with the idea that their love is timeless:
‘Only our love hath no decay;
This no tomorrow hath, nor yesterday’.
But Donne seems sure that their love is everlasting:
‘Running it never runs away from us away,
But truly keepes his first, last, everlasting day.’
It is in the third stanza that a new perspective is added to this piece. The line ‘Two graves must hide thine and my coarse’ throws up all manner of questions. It is evident the lovers are not married. If they were they would be able to be buried in the same grave. This leads the reader to the next question: if they are so deeply in love why are they not married yet? Is it because they are already married to others? Suddenly their love does not seem so idyllic.
Donne explains how, after death, their love will be all that is left of them and their souls will be together, ‘a love increased there above, / When bodies to their graves, soules from their graves / remove.’. He almost threatens his lover in the lines ‘Who is safe as wee? where none can doe / Treason to us, except one of us two,’ implying that if one was to do something to hurt the other it would result in death.
In the final stanza Donne summarizes the rest of the poem. He accepts that their love may not last for ever but hopes it will last as long as possible:
‘True and false feares let us refraine,
Let us love nobly, and live, and adde againe
Yeares and yeares unto yeares, till we attaine
To write threescore: this is the second of our raigne.’.
From this summary it shows that all can be celebrated is the one year. However they can hope for many more years together.
The positive light in which Donne presents the afterlife is reflected in Herbert’s Shakespearian sonnet ‘Redemption’.
‘Redemption’ is a poem written on two levels. The reader is forced to search for the true meaning. From the first quatrain you would think that it is simply about land:
‘Having been tenant to a rich Lord,
Not thriving, I resolved to be bold,
And make a suit unto him, to afford
A new small-rented lease, and cancell th’old.’
The only clue that this poem is about anything but land, from these four lines, is the capital letter in ‘Lord’. This could be a reference to Jesus, or God.
The first real clue that ‘Redemption’ is not about land is the line, ‘In heaven at his manour I him sought’. From this the reader begins to understand the extended metaphor that is the poem.
Even though the reference to ‘heaven’ could refer to the relative Eden in which the lord lives, a perceptive reader would easily notice the link between ‘Lord’ and ‘heaven’.
Once the reader has realised the poem is an extended metaphor, the deeper meaning of the first quatrain becomes apparent. Instead of being about a plebeian seeking a different plot of land, it is the poet asking forgiveness for his sins. Instead of a physical journey to set oneself up for more financial gain, it is an emotional journey to prepare oneself for the inevitable; death.
This poem clearly shows the connections the poet holds with Christianity, for example: "some land, which he had dearly bought/ long since on earth" this refers to creation. The mention of birth of Jesus strengthens this link, "knowing his great birth" is clear indication of this.
‘Redemption’ contradicts the old saying “it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to pass into heaven”. Herbert does this by implying that sins are a lack of riches: ‘Not thriving... make a suit unto him to afford / A new small-rented lease, and cancell th’old’.’. He also likens heaven to a manor house, subsequently implying that those better off live in heaven, ‘In heaven at his manour house I him sought’. This is particularly strange, as throughout the bible it is accepted that money is evil.
In the lines ‘At length I heard a ragged noise and mirth / Of theeves and murderers’, mirth is used as a collective noun. This is quite unexpected, as ‘theeves and murderers’ are not people usually associated with happiness- in fact, quite the opposite. But it effective in conveying Christianity as a good thing; no matter who you are, when you are with Jesus you are happy.
The presentation of ‘Your suit is granted’ in italics gives further emphasis to the closing line, and indeed the point of the poem. It is clear from this that the poet has achieved his goal, redemption.
‘Redemption’ and all the other poems already discussed talk about an after life- whether it be positively or negatively. ‘To His Coy Mistress’ by Andrew Marvell uses the supposed lack of afterlife as a way to further his argument and persuade his lover into bed.
The poem is written in three clear sections: thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. The first section – the thesis – is the longest, and mocks the traditional process of courting:
‘An hundred years should go to praise
Thine Eyes, and on thy Forehead Gaze.
Two hundred to adore each Breast:
But thirty thousand to the rest.’
The poet uses hyperbole to satirise those couples in which, following the ideals of Petrarch, the man puts his love on the metaphysical pedestal. Marvell justifies his opinions by explaining that there is simply no time for the traditional courting process: ‘Had we but world enough, and Time / This coyness Lady were no crime’.
The antithesis of the poem is full of unpleasant images. There is a strong semantic field of death: ‘Eternity’, ‘Worms’, ‘dust’, ashes’, ‘Grave’s’. The methods of persuasion in the section of the argument are more threatening than persuasive, for example: ‘the Worms shall try / That long preserv’d Virginity’.
In this section, as ever, there is constant reference to time:
‘But at my back I alwaies hear
Times winged Charriot hurrying near’
The advancing ‘winged Charriot’ could either be death or just old age. Whichever it is they both prove the same point – they do not have enough time to waste on the courting process, and it would be far better for her to just give in to his demands.
During the synthesis Marvell drives home his point that time is running out by using a faster rhythm. In the previous sections the couplets were self contained, which kept the pace fairly slow. However in the last section there are only three sentences this helps to increase the pace. He also uses words such as ‘devour’, and ‘instant’, words which are associated rapid movements. However the language used to describe the sexual act appears controversial. He likens their love making to ‘am’rous birds of prey’ and a connnball:
‘Let us roll all our Strength, and all
Our sweetness, up into one Ball:
And tear our Pleasures with rough strife
Throughout the Iron gates of Life.’
These images are disturbing, and not what you would expect considering he is trying to persuade his mistress into bed.
The closing two lines of the poem summarise the argument:
‘Thus, though we cannot make our Sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.’
Although they cannot control the inevitable advancement of time, they can (and should) make the most of their time together.
There are many views on the after life, and its questionable existence. Whether you- like Vaughan- believe that death is the beginning of a wonderful existence, or if you prefer to see death as a tool for revenge (like Donne in ‘The Apparition’) we are all agreed on one aspect. We all die. However, the mystery still remains, and the fact is no one knows for certain what will happen to when we leave this world.
