the anniversary by jonh doone

7/31/2019 The Anniversary by Jonh Doone

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Iris Rodríguez Grande

John Donne(1572-1631) is considered the pre-eminent representative of

the metaphysical poets. He wrote include religious poems, Latin

translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, sermons, and sonnets as " The

Anniversary".

" The Anniversay" is a love sonnet written between 1633 to 1719. "The

Anniversary" is one of John Donne’s early love poetries. The purpose of

his love poetries are to focus on how important he sees his love and to

show how much he treasures his times with his loved one. This poem is

the celebration of a love that is a year old " Is elder by a year" . This has

not been affected by any changes. It is love triumphant, resisting decay

which invades everything else in the world " All other things to their

destruction draw,/ Only our love has no decay" Only death can end it.

Death will sever the lovers. Love has crowned them kings, but kings too

die, and they will be subjects to death.

The Anniversary is structured by three stanzas, each following the

rhyming scheme of aabbccdddd. The number of syllables fluctuated all

around the poem from 8, 9, to 10, 12... He also uses the iambic

pentameter with variations. The structure shows the confidence and a

lack of doubt in his argument. His argument being his love for his

partner is stronger and grander than the royalties, that even the sun will

age but their love will not.



The underlying conceit of the entire poem is the metaphor of royalty,

where the speaker addresses his lover, and himself, as if they were royal

kings and nobles " Here upon earth, we are kings, and none but we/ Can

be such kings, nor of such subject be:". The two lovers have been

together for one year, and yet, unlike the kings and glories, and even

the sun which brings life and time, the two lovers have not aged in their

love. John Doone is referring to an eternal love, though they are

temporal human being. He is suggesting that nothing can stop love,

unless death.

Nevertheless, death can only stop the physical love. Death can only

destroy their bodies and their spiritual love that is in their souls will last

forever. The theme of death appear to be more recurrent in the second

stanza " Two graves must hide thine and my corpse;/If one might, death

were no divorce:". This love appears to be divine and everlasting. “This

no to-morrow hath, nor yesterday” declares that his love will last forever

because it has no tomorrow, and that it does not look back to yesterday,

and this idea is corroborated where despite time and the love running

forwards together, “it never runs from us away”, suggesting that the

love will never run away, but instead “truly keeps his first, last,

everlasting day”, being eternal and long-lasting.

The third stanza refocuses on the first one as the lovers comparison with

the royalty. Their love and themselves are still alive" Here upon earth,



we are Kings, and none but we/ Can be such Kings, nor of such subjects

be:". They love each other so the word treason is unthinkable, their love

is pure and faithful" True and false fears let us refrain,/ Let us love

nobly, and live, and add again". is an honest, proud declaration of loving

without fear, and then the final declaration is the intention of keeping

their reign long and long, “to write threescore”, loving “nobly” and living

nobly.

To sum up, Doone compares eternal love as royalty. This pure faithful

love that survives to death in a more spiritual way. The lovers are just

like kings in their love. Nothing else matters, they are subjects of their

love and nothing can not affect them.

the anniversary by jonh doone

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