Critical Appreciation of The Poem Sweetest Love I do not Goe

Question 1.
Write down a critical appreciation of the poem Sweetest Love, I do not go.
Answer:
John Donne, the great metaphysical poet, wrote many exciting poems which are quite radical in content and innovative in structure. There is a bold rejection of death in his poems- sometimes he firmly denies the very existence of death like a mystic who is fully convinced of the soul’s immortality, but most of the time he speaks as a lover who can find enough strength in love to reject death. It is the second attitude that is the subject of this poem and it is here that we notice Downe’s power of argument, his ability to turn every negative circumstance in his power.

The speaker of the poem is a lover who is trying to speak to his beloved after death. Knowing very well that his beloved is quite upset over this incurable 2 separation, the speaker is trying to fashion arguments against any influence of death. He plainly says that death has had no influence over his relationship with her because of the profound love that he had for her. In such a love the souls and the body are so united that death cannot sever them. In spite of death the speaker feels that he is living in the body of his beloved.

The sense of total oneness that is possible to be achieved in a relationship of love is forcefully presented by the speaker. There is Donne’s familiar mockery of the sun, the agent of change, of the flow of time, and therefore, the measure of death. That even the sun has stopped and that the imagination of the lover is speedier create new fanciful pictures of a life-after-death.

After life has been a subject of the scriptures as well. But Donne has given it a fantastic twist only to present a more colourful picture in relation to love. So the appeal of the speaker to his beloved to preserve his life that is within her makes a powerful statement of their oneness.

By using certain common motifs of his poetry Downe ensures a living unity to his individual poems through which a set of new ideas is dramatically introduced and cleverly sustained by play of logic. But within this intellectual ingenuity, the feeling of emotions cannot be denied-they appear to be deeper, less spontaneous but certainly growing stronger with every moment of reflection.

Bihar Board Class 12th English Important Questions