Angels
Angels symbolize the almost-divine status attained by
beloveds in Donne’s love poetry. As divine messengers, angels mediate
between God and humans, helping humans become closer to the divine.
The speaker compares his beloved to an angel in “Elegy 19.
To His Mistress Going to Bed.” Here, the beloved, as well as his love
for her, brings the speaker closer to God because with her, he attains
paradise on earth. According to Ptolemaic astronomy, angels governed
the spheres, which rotated around the earth, or the center of the
universe. In “Air and Angels” (1633), the
speaker draws on Ptolemaic concepts to compare his beloved to the aerial
form assumed by angels when they appear to humans. Her love governs
him, much as angels govern spheres. At the end of the poem, the
speaker notes that a slight difference exists between the love a
woman feels and the love a man feels, a difference comparable to
that between ordinary air and the airy aerial form assumed by angels.
The Compass
Perhaps the most famous conceit in all of metaphysical
poetry, the compass symbolizes the relationship between lovers:
two separate but joined bodies. The symbol of the compass is another
instance of Donne’s using the language of voyage and conquest to
describe relationships between and feelings of those in love. Compasses
help sailors navigate the sea, and, metaphorically, they help lovers
stay linked across physical distances or absences. In “A Valediction:
Forbidding Mourning,” the speaker compares his soul and the soul
of his beloved to a so-called twin compass. Also known
as a draftsman’s compass, a twin compass has two legs,
one that stays fixed and one that moves. In the poem, the speaker
becomes the movable leg, while his beloved becomes the fixed leg.
According to the poem, the jointure between them, and the steadiness
of the beloved, allows the speaker to trace a perfect circle while
he is apart from her. Although the speaker can only trace this circle
when the two legs of the compass are separated, the compass can
eventually be closed up, and the two legs pressed together again,
after the circle has been traced.
Blood
Generally blood symbolizes life, and Donne uses blood
to symbolize different experiences in life, from erotic passion
to religious devotion. In “The Flea” (1633),
a flea crawls over a pair of would-be lovers, biting and drawing
blood from both. As the speaker imagines it, the blood of the pair
has become intermingled, and thus the two should become sexually
involved, since they are already married in the body of the flea.
Throughout the Holy Sonnets, blood symbolizes passionate
dedication to God and Christ. According to Christian belief, Christ
lost blood on the cross and died so that humankind might be pardoned
and saved. Begging for guidance, the speaker in Holy Sonnet 7 (1633)
asks Christ to teach him to be penitent, such that he will be made worthy
of Christ’s blood. Donne’s religious poetry also underscores the
Christian relationship between violence, or bloodshed, and purity.
For instance, the speaker of Holy Sonnet 9 (1633)
pleads that Christ’s blood might wash away the memory of his sin
and render him pure again.
