The Development of the Concept of Love in Poetry from Petrarch to Donne

Introduction
"Metaphysical poetry is the poetry of the great age of our drama. Its master John Donne was, we are told, ‘a great frequenter of plays ' in his youth. As an ambitious young man of social standing he would not have considered writing for the players, and his work is too personal, wilful, and idiosyncratic for us to imagine him doing so with any success. But his strong dramatic imagination of particular situations transforms the lyric and makes a metaphysical poem more than an epigram expanded by conceits." (Gardner 1985:23)

Personality and idiosyncrasy are a good starting point to describe the poems of John Donne. Also his love poetry which will be investigated a little bit closer in this work shows many personal elements.
But John Donne did not start a whole new poetry from the scratch, therefore this paper will give an overlook how and where the poetry developed and how it was picked up and changed to meet the requirements of the metaphysical poets.
The sonnet as a lyrical form became popular in the time of Petrarch. His kind of love poetry came into fashion in England in the sixteenth century. It became very influential throughout Europe in the following centuries. The sonnet was brought to England by Sir Thomas Wyatt. Mainly his achievements were the introduction of the petrarchan sonnets into the English society and their translation into the English language. Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey established a new rhyme scheme that he had developed out of the petrarchan rhyme scheme.
Today the so called Shakespearean sonnet follows the rhyme scheme that the Earl of Surrey invented. Like the Petrarchan sonnet, the Shakespearean sonnet is not named after the inventor, but after its most famous representatives.
Shakespeare and Donne wrote their love poems approximately around the same time. But they still differ in their form and matter.
Overall this work wants to prove that the love poetry of Donne is more complex and much more differentiated than that of Petrarch. During the following centuries the love poetry in the sonnet form also started to differ in the themes. That means the metaphysical love poetry combined the love theme with the fields of alchemy, the renaissance and the reformation. It also brought in ironical elements, which are often described as the typical "Metaphysical wit" (Beer 1972:26). These ironical elements often find their linguistic realisation in the metaphysical conceit. The metaphysical poets also brought in a change in the formal style of poems. They did not always stick to the conventional forms or only sticked to them on the surface.
The starting point of this paper are two sonnets by Petrarch from his "Canzoniere" namely number thirteen ‘Quando fra l 'altre donne ad ora ad ora ' and number ninety ‘Erano i capei d 'oro a l 'aura sparsi '. The development of the Petrarchan sonnet in England is shown with the help of some excerpts from at first Thomas Wyatt and his poems ‘Madame, withouten many words ' and ‘Who so list to hunt ' and at second with the poem ‘Description and Praise of his Love Geraldine ' by Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey. The next step in this comparison will be some excerpts from the ‘Dark Lady Sonnets ' by Shakespeare. Finally, I will analyse Donne 's ‘Elegie: To his Mistris going to Bed ' and prove the development also with the help of some references to other poems of John Donne.

2. Development of love poetry until Donne
2.1. Petrarch
Petrarch was very much concerned with the theme of love in all its variations in his poems. The ‘Canzoniere ' shows all the different aspects of love, but as a collection of sonnets and cantons it also has poems in it that are about the nature, certain cities or even the political situation in Italy at that time. In sonnet number 13 ‘Quando fra l 'altre donne ad ora ad ora ' the overall theme is love, more specific the love to a woman who is out of reach. The poet observes the woman from a distance. He does neither speak to her nor even approach her closer. It seems as if he follows her around, because he "bless [es] the place, the time, and the hour in which my eyes gazed to such a height," (Petrarch ll.5-6). But even though the writer does not speak to the lady he seems to know her and even more important, she seems to know him as well, because "From her to you comes loving thought," (Petrarch l.9). The woman as a lady of honour would not send "loving thoughts" to a man she does not know or appreciate. This love that connects the poet and the adored women is a platonic love. It is concerned with the spirits and the thoughts. The woman did not "yield" to the author yet "so that in hope I fly, already, to the heights." (Petrarch l.14). The writer is still "in hope" so their love is still platonic, he surely wants to change that and there is no hint that she is of an opposite mind. So the reader can not tell for sure, whether the poet and the woman will have a physical affair as well as one that happens only in their minds. Obviously she is worth to be adored, because she "leads to highest good," (Petrarch l.10) and "from her comes that spirit full of grace" (Petrarch l.12). This poem reflects the state of mind in which the writer is currently in, the reader acknowledges that the poet is thinking. It refers to the ideal of platonic love that means love as the intense union of two different minds.
In sonnet number ninety ‘Erano i capei d 'oro a l 'aura sparsi ' Petrarch describes a more intense and realistic love than in sonnet number thirteen. He describes the woman he adores here more exactly, not just her beauty or her beautiful face as such, but her golden hair, her eyes and her voice. The adored lady has "gold hair […] that twined it [the breeze] in a thousand sweet knots," (Petrarch ll.1-2) this image reminds one of the ‘Loreley ' especially if you read on where the poet refers to the womans speech that "rang higher than a mere human voice." (Petrarch l.11). The ‘Loreley ' is a water nymph, she is not a human being, but of another sphere and she drives men crazy through her singing and they drown in the sea. I 'm not quite sure if Petrarch was familiar with the ‘Loreley ' or if her tale was known at Petrarchs time. So it is more convenient to say that the description of the adored lady refers to the sirens from the Greek myths. If the picture either refers to the ‘Loreley ' or the sirens is not really important at the end, because the important thing is that they all have the power to let men rush headlong towards ruin. Obviously, the woman in this poem also has or at least had this power, because of the writer 's description that her beauty faded somehow. "…beautiful eyes, which are now so dim:" (Petrarch l.4) and "…her face wore the colour of pity…" (Petrarch ll.5-6) say that she does not look the way she used to. It is possible that the woman is in pain or maybe that she is getting older and so looses some of her charisma.
The writer is not surprised that he fell in love with this astonishing woman because when he fell in love with her she was "A celestial spirit, a living sun" (Petrarch l.12). Here again you find the reference to something that is not human, the woman is adored as an angel or a goddess. The poet feels overwhelming love for her, because even now that she is not as pretty as before his love is not weakening "… and if she is not such now, the wound 's not healed, although the bow is slack." (Petrarch ll.13-14). "the wound 's not healed" refers to his love that is not over, even though he thought it would be, since she is not that beautiful anymore.
This second poem might as well be addressed to Laura. Laura, the woman Petrarch claimed to love and adore all his life until her death. Many of the poems in the ‘Canzoniere ' are about her. In Hoffmeister there is a reference on a pun with the word Laura "… laura, laurea, lauro, aura, oro." (Hoffmeister 1997:91). This pun is also found in the sonnet number ninety: ‘l 'aura ', as the air and ‘oro ' as the gold of her hair. So Petrarch could have meant ‘a laura ' what means for Laura, which brings an ambiguity to the context, because the text is no longer about some ‘blond hair woman ' but about a real existing one, who is said to have had a love affair with Petrarch (Hoffmeister 1997:90-92). This linking brings more reality into the poem.
These two sonnets are in four stanzas with 14-syllable lines, with the rhyme scheme of a Petrarchan sonnet. Unfortunately, this rhyme scheme has not been preserved in the English or German translation.
Petrarch also treated philosophical ideas in his poems through the use of the theme of platonic love. His work is mainly self analysis and self reflection.
His main theme is love, more important the love between an unapproachable woman and a man who idolises her. This poetry always wavers between being on top of the world one minute and down in the dumps the next. Every feeling depends on the adored woman.
Petrarchism in a descriptive way includes everything that corresponds to the speech and style ideals of Petrarch and that was taken up by his successors in form and contents. Hoffmeister states that Petrarchism has to be divided into two parts. First that Petrarchism that stands in relation to Petrarch and Second that Petrarchism that stands in relation to all the imitators of Petrarch among themselves as well as their bringing in other views on love. (Hoffmeister1997:120)

2.2. Wyatt and Surrey
Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey are surely successors and imitators of Petrarch. They "… were the first English poets to imitate Italians, and while Surrey does so with some technical skill and produces attractive verse, Wyatt adopts Petrarchan expression for deeper and more creative purposes." (Sadlon 2004:1).
In Wyatt 's ‘Madame withouten many words ' the speaker is in love with a woman and asks for a quick answer from her. He wants to know if she is also in love with him and he also gives an outlook what will happen between them after her answer. The writer suffers really badly because he is not sure about her feelings and therefore he needs her answer now, so he addresses her "Madam, withouten many words" (Wyatt l.1). The lady has only two possibilities to answer "… I am sure ye will or no;" (Wyatt l.2). Wyatt ends the poem with the words "And I myn owne and yours no more." (Wyatt l.12), this verse says what will happen if the woman rejects him. Throughout the whole poem there are more hints on the ladies love for the writer than against it, so the writer seems pretty convinced that he will win the woman for himself. He only introduces this idea of her saying no because it is a possible answer, for example if the woman is married and can therefore not show her love for the poet. Foley has remarked, "the rhetorical occasion is that of a man addressing a woman, not an idealized image of woman, but a woman who is there" (Foley 1990:92). This means Wyatt does not talk about an angel or a goddess, but of a woman that is approachable for him. This poem is already written in another verse scheme ‘abab cdcd efef ', it has only twelve verses. Wyatt 's language is plain and open to express the urge he feels to know the woman 's answer.
In ‘Whoso list to hunt ' the reader finds a whole different view on love. Whereas in ‘Madame, withouten many words ' the poet is in the expectation that his love will be reciprocated, in this poem he has given up on love. The poem is an imitation of a petrarchan sonnet (Foley 1990:98). The writer refers to the woman in this poem as a "hind" (Wyatt l.1) and "deer" (Wyatt l.6) and therefore the deer hunt that is described in the poem really describes a hunt for a woman. Event though the poet does not want to take part anymore in this game, he somehow is lost and can not do anything against still taking part "I am of them that farthest come behind." (Wyatt l.4). The whole poem is very intense and dramatic. It is in the written in the Petrarchan rhyme scheme ‘abba abba cdcd ee '. Wyatt has a totally different perception of love than Petrarch, interestingly enough you can find this other view also in his translations of the Petrarchan poems.
Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey developed out of the petrarchan rhyme scheme the Shakespearean sonnet that means three quatrains followed by a couplet, rhyming ‘abab cdcd efef gg '. The Earl of Surrey was a friend and an admirer of Thomas Wyatt and their poetry has a lot in common, but Surrey 's poetry sound softer and not so rough. Surrey developed the Shakespearean rhyme scheme and one would expect him to break more with the conventions concerning the love theme as he actually did. His poems draw beautiful images of the woman he describes and they seem to be adored, like in Petrarch 's verses and not in Wyatt 's. This can be seen in the poem by Surrey ‘Description and praise of his love Geraldine '. Geraldine is described as coming from a "worthy race" (Surrey l.1) and "Her beauty of kind ; her virtues from above ;" (Wyatt l.13). The poet draws a short outline where Geraldine comes from, what her social status is and how he got to know her, but he also states that he is not able to "have" her: "Happy is he that may obtain her love !" (Wyatt l.14). The adored woman is not approachable, she is predestined to marry another man or she might be already married. This sonnet is, of course, written in the Shakespearean rhyme scheme, which helps the form of the poem, because the last couplet is like a reflection on the rest of the sonnet. The writer has come to the conclusion how wonderful Geraldine is, and how happy every man who can have her must be and strengthens this statement through the couplet.

2.3. Shakespeare
In the ‘Dark Lady ' Sonnets is nothing left of the goddess-like woman, the ‘Dark Lady ' is caught in her faults, her bad and good sides. The woman is no longer loved from the distance and in addition she is also loved physically, because she is the mistress. "In the Sonnets the unattainable woman is replaced […] by a woman who certainly is attainable, and who generates both desire and loathing in the speaker." (Hyland 2003:146). In contrast to the Petrarchan ideal woman the ‘Dark Lady ' has black hair, Laura had blond hair. Even though Shakespeare states "… now is black beauty 's successive heir" (Shakespeare 's Sonnets 127, l.3) the image of a ‘femme fatale ' keeps coming up, because long blond hair has always been a symbol for an angel or a good and chaste woman and the dark and black counterpart can only be something evil and dangerous. This comparison between the colours white and black, good and evil is also shown in the sonnet ‘My love is as a fever, longing still ' "For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, Who art as black as hell, as dark as night." (Shakespeare 's Sonnets 147, ll.13-14). This is the last couplet in the sonnet; it gives not only the hint on the hair colour, but more so a hint on the personality of the ‘Dark Lady ', she betrayed the writer and now he is acknowledging that she is not as pure and fair as he thought.
All the ‘Dark Lady ' sonnets are really passionate, because they deal with very intense feelings: betrayal, physical love, but also spiritual love, which both go close together with hatred. Shakespeare is fascinated by the ‘Dark Lady ', he knows about her faults, but that does not stop him from hanging on to her. They seem to be in bondage to each other but still the loved one and love in general are put to question all the time.
Shakespeare makes absolutely fun of the Petrarchan love concepts in ‘My mistress ' eyes are nothing like the sun '. The poem plays with the images that were used to describe the beauty of a woman in the Petrarchan sonnets. Instead of just taking images that please the poet more, he also uses symbols like the sun, roses and snow, only to say that his beloved woman does not at all compare to those things. To say "My mistress ' eyes are nothing like the sun" (Shakespeare 's Sonnets 130, l.1) robs her of any goddess-like status. Shakespeare consciously refrains from the idealisation of his mistress (Klein 2002:266). The comparison of the mistresses hair "If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head." (Shakespeare 's Sonnets 130, l.4) is seen, in today 's times as a very weird one. It makes the ‘Dark Lady ' a grotesque something and lets her seem as an artificial woman, what is the absolute opposite from what Shakespeare intended to say. The writer wanted either to make fun of the image of golden hair and the comparison to golden threads (Klein 2002:268) or with using this image of threads on black hair tell the reader how beautiful her hair is, because only black hair can look like a whole mass of interwoven threads. In the end couplet Shakespeare comes to the conclusion, that he loves the lady the way she is, not idolised but as a real woman and that therefore he does not have to make false and exaggerated statements about her beauty "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare / As any she belied with false compare." (Shakespeare 's Sonnets 130, ll.13-14). Important to say is also that this conclusion does not mean the poet 's lady is not beautiful, it means she is "rare" to him, which refers to her appearance as well as her mind.
So finally "… we can see Shakespeare 's Sonnets as a work that violently challenged the values of the genre of the sonnet sequence as they were reflected in […] the fashionable clichés of the late Elizabethan period." (Hyland 2003:146).

3. Love poetry in metaphysical poetry – Donne
Donne 's poetry has to be divided into three major groups: these are his religious poetry, poetry that occurred occasionally and on different subject matters and his love poetry. This last poetry "…is remarkable for realism, psychological penetration, and above all for the range and variety of mood, corresponding to the variety of tone and style…" (Cox 1988:118).
The metaphysical conceit helps the metaphysical poets to express their unconventional ideas, it is seen in contrast to the Petrarchan conceit which expressed conventional ideas and was predictable. Conceits are comparisons that are connected with certain themes or ideas; they compare things that usually do not go together and are highly abstract. This increases the awareness of the reader, so it is easier for him to understand the definition or argumentation that usually stands behind a conceit. It creates a certain picture, thought or emotion in the head of the reader. In metaphysical love poetry the conceit is often connected with love in general, the direction between love and death and it is also used as an aspect of the ‘carpe diem ' tradition. The ‘cease the day ' argument is used by the poet to demand a certain action, usually the seduction of a woman. This stands clearly in contrast to the Petrarchan love poems that pursued the Platonic love. Donne 's poems are frankly sexual, one example is the ‘Elegie: To his Mistris Going to Bed '.
This poem is about a mistress and the writer who are getting undressed to go to bed; they are about to spend their first night of love with each other. The poem is divided into three main parts, the persuasion (ll.1-4), the undressing (ll.5-24) and the real seduction (ll.25-48). The persuasion part is relatively short in comparison to the other parts. This is due mainly to the ‘work ' the writer did in advance of the situation that occurs in the poem "The foe oft-times, […] Is tir 'd with standing," (Donne ll.3-4). The writer must have already invested a lot of time and effort to seduce this woman. If she is not willing to follow him now, he will give up. But as this does not happen, he starts describing how her clothes go off. It is not quite clear if the poet undresses the mistress himself, or if he is watching her getting undressed. If he is only watching her, then his pretty rough language informs and instructs her how she has to get undressed, because he starts with "Off with that girdle," (Donne l.5), "Unpin that…" (Donne l.7) and "Off with that …" (Donne l.11) and son on. Interestingly enough, Donne seems to be very familiar with all the specific terms for women 's clothes, which leads one to the assumption that this mistress is neither his first nor will be his last. Nevertheless, the poet does not lose any of his passion, he is still impatiently waiting for the girl and he is also adoring her, but more so the state in which she is in, that means losing more and more of her wardrobe "Your gownes going off such beauteous state reveales / As when from flowery meads th 'hills shadow steales." (Donne ll.12-13), that means basically that the sun rises when she gets undressed and that the poet is very much pleased by her appearance. The passage from line 18 to 24 is very hard to understand. It is not quite clear what the poet intended to say. Maybe the mistress hesitated to finish undressing and the poet tries to convince her with the false logic that she looks like an "Ill spirit…" (Donne l.22) in her white gown and has to take it off. Or maybe the poet and his mistress acknowledge that they do something that was not right in their times without being married. "Though Angel bring 'st with thee / […] Angels from an evill sprite:" which means that even though that what they are about to do will be heaven-like, they are in some way forced to do it because of the evil spirits and that therefore it is not good.
In the last part of the poem the actual seduction is described. "Licence my roving hands, and let them goe / Behind, before, above, between, below." (Donne ll. 25-26). This excerpt shows the passion and lust that run through the whole poem as the central theme. Donne describes his situation as being in the role of an explorer. He compares the mistress body to "… America, my new found lande, / My kingdome, safeliest when with one man man 'd, / My myne of precious stones, my Empiree, How blest am I in this discovering thee." (Donne ll.27-30). The passage clearly shows Donne 's interest in Scientifics as well as his comprehensive knowledge about the fields of education, including mathematics, astronomy and medicine. The image of the ‘myne ' is also found in ‘Loves Alchymie ': "Some that have deeper digg 'd loves Myne than I" (Donne l.1). In both verses refer to the mine as a place where you find precious substances, metals or stones. These alchemists images concerning precious stones can also refer to the ‘Philosopher 's Stone ' which none of the alchemists ever found. Alchemists in general were always in search of refining substances or discovering something. The woman might not be the ‘Philosopher 's Stone ' but she is for sure a new discovery for the poet. He also names "Gems which you women use" (Donne l.35), but in contrast to the mine, the gems are not used as an alchemist picture, but rather as a sort of weapon of women to confuse and capture men "That when a fooles eye lighteth on a gem / His earthly soule may covet theirs not them." (Donne ll.37-38).
In the next section Donne compares women to "mystique bookes" (Donne l.41), which at least women seem to be to some men. For Donne it is quite clear that only men should see women completely "reveal 'd" (Donne l.43) and therefore, as the last step of the seduction before they actually have sex with each other, the women has to take of her last peace of "white linnen" (Donne l.45). The white colour of the linen stands here also for the innocence of the mistress. The comparison of books and women shows also, that Donne is not only interested in the physical beauty of this woman, but also in her mind, because mystique books appear always very interesting. This image again refers to the typical alchemist who is always in search for something.
In the last three lines the poet takes on the role of a teacher: "Here is no pennance, much less innocence. / To teach thee, I am naked first: Why then / What need 'st thou have more covering than a man." (Donne ll.46-48). He states that there is no penance in what they are doing, so in the end they do nothing wrong, at least from his point of view. The whole poem lives through the vivid visual expressions, all these pictures are very beautiful, not only on the surface, but also if you look a little bit deeper into their meaning. They show the real affection for this woman in a very personal, direct and open way. Although the reader never gets a clear view on the woman, concerning her appearance, social status and so on, she still seems to be real, existing and on the spot. Through the ‘lyrical I ' Donne gives the reader the feeling of a very personal lyric which express the poet 's own emotions. (Evans 1955:165)
Donne develops a lot of different thoughts about women in ‘Loves Alchymie ' "… they 'are but Mummy possest." (Donne l.24) and he also states "Hope not for minde in women;" (Donne l.23). The whole poem gives a realistic and negative view on love, it criticizes love in general and it is bitter and cynical.
A poem of Donne that shows how important the spiritual union between two lovers is and that it is more important than the physical union, even though the physical union is still important is ‘The Extasie '. Body and soul are separate from each other during the act of physical love; the physical union of these two lovers is connected to silence. "All day, the same our postures were, / And wee said nothing, all the day."(Donne ll.19-20), there is an understanding between these lovers that lies beyond language.
"Donne 's experience of love is no longer informed by any integrated set of values, and his poems mirror, instead, the uncoordinated impulses which his later religious poetry attempts to control." (Evans 1955:175) "For Godsake hold your tongue, and let me love," (Donne l.1) from ‘The Canonization ' shows this impatience and temper. This first line is clearly a response to someone who has been arguing with the poet about their love relationship.
Beer comes to the conclusion: "As his religious poems move through all gradations from confidence to despair and back again, so his love poems present every possible mood." (Beer 1972:52).

4. Conclusion
John Donne gave the English love poetry a new realism and a new significance in the seventeenth century. He was against the highly conventional style of the Elizabethan poets, but still used their achievements, for example he also wrote sonnets in the regular form but with a more complex central theme. Donne also used the Petrarchan images and makes fun of them as for example in ‘Twicknam Garden '. He strongly rejects the ideas of Petrarch. For Donne no longer the adoration and admiration of the mistress is important, but sexual realism. The poems show really strong and intense feelings with so much personality and idiosyncrasy in them that you always seem to identify Donne 's poems as his own. Often he does not only focus on the delights of beauty and love, he also deals with the frustration and torments that come along with love and he does so in a rather cynical way. This cynicism is also often used by him in connection with satirical elements. A very important point in Donne 's poetry is also that it is open to interpretation. This is usually a feature of modern literature and poetry and therefore it is no wonder that Donne is a pioneer for post-modern writers such as T.S. Eliot.
In contrast to Shakespeare, who does not seem to be himself in all his poems or plays, Donne almost never seems to play a role in his poems. They appear to be highly autobiographical especially if you look at his adult career which can be divided into three major parts. The first one is from his arrival in London to his marriage; the second period lasts from his marriage until his ordination and the third period lasts from his ordination until his death. (Cox 1988:117). Donne 's love poetry was often about separation and the sorrow of love, especially after the death of his wife. As a result he turns back to the religious, metaphysical love.
Metaphysical love poetry was a lot more complex than Petrarchan love poetry. Donne brought in the aspects of religion and alchemy in almost every of his love poems. He uses the language of Alchemy and religious images for comparisons with the love theme. Often these metaphors have to do with purification of the soul or spiritual love. All these metaphors, conceits, the metaphysical wit and the satirical elements due to the fact that the metaphysical poets were learned poets and they kept on learning throughout their whole lives.

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