Presentation of love in ‘Love’s Alchemy’ and ‘Apparition’

In Donne’s ‘Apparition’ and ‘Love's Alchemy', the euphoric ideals of love cynically dismantled
and disillusioned, in order to present it as something unattainable and something that will tear
the essence of your being apart. While ‘Love's Alchemy poses a more philosophical and
poignant perspective on the effects of losing love; that it will remove all that is pure in a lover,
‘Apparition’ presents a much more vengeful and vulgar take on the effects of love and rejection;
that his partners chastity will drive him to death. Nonetheless, Donne consistently conveys a
sense of hesitancy towards the precariousness of love through both poems, and conveys the
effects of such by unresolving life's most painful affairs for both personas; loneliness, and
rejection.

Donne’s poems cover a range of feelings towards love, from intense physical passion, to
spiritual philosophical questionings. However, in ‘Apparition’, Donne uses the classic petrarchan
convention through the rejected lovers complaint, to present love as a mere physical conquest to
the persona. This is reflected in the persona’s delineation that his partners chastity is killing him,
and that as a punishment for not obiding to his requests, her future desires for sex and pleasure
will be haunted by his ‘ghost’.

The persona creates a vulgar, and promiscuous view of his female partner,

Antithesis

reminder her of how promiscuously ‘sick’ she has become

Donne creates a dichotomous voice for the persona – a vindictive ex-lover who wants his
partner to suffer, but also a petulant insecure voice from his rejected self. ‘O’ in ‘O murderess I
am dead’ conveys this sense of anguished whining and utter deperation for her to have sex with
him, and through the readers perspective may even be considered pathetic. The capitlaized ‘O’
also gives heavy sexual connotations, as if he is moaning for her to listen to him.

This is due to the sheer irony in his representation of his parter, and what her actions have
proven her to be. The persona’s description of her being a ‘feign'd vestal’ emphasizes this sense
of her ‘innocence’ and chastity being a

The personas inconsistent attitudes, also reflected in the inconsistent presentation of his female
partner, as he perceives her as promiscuous to such an extent where she would be sick from so
many sexually transmitted diseases in the future, when the roots of his insults is that she refused
to sleep with him. The persona perceived her so promiscuous to the extent where she would be
sick from so many sexually transmitted diseases in the future, when the roots of his insults is
that she refused to sleep with him and wanted to maintain her innocence.

Done using an inconsistent rhyme scheme, parallels this misrepresentation of his lover, and can
be interpreted as a violent burst of anger, almost like an ejaculatory assault towards his partner.

Describing her as irrational

Donne's notorious love affairs before marrying his young wife Anne Moore, may have been the
root of his skepticism and criticism towards women and their faithfulness. However, more
convincingly, this poem may in fact be a sarcastic take on the mass fear of being a cuckold in his
current society.

In ‘Apparition’, and in many of Donne’s other poems, he rarely lingers over the woman’s physical
appearance, which may suggest the women in Donne’s poems are an object or reflection of the
views on women in his male coterie.

That was both deeply private and culturally situated, both permeated with personal allusions and
imbued with society’s norms and expectations)

Similarly in loves Alchemy, love is presented as something that won't last, and while in security is
not present in this poem, loves inconsistency understands 2 words: love is prevalent. There is a
consistent cynicism, just as a chill on a summers Night disappoints, so does the bereaved a t of
love for those naive enough to dream a rich and long Delight. Love for the Persona is transient
and precarious just like avane bubble Shadow. Done comparing loves constancy to something
as delicate and fragile as a bubble shows the sense of inevitable failure as a bubble no matter
the size always end up arresting. This idea done has posed of love being short-lived, is
confirmed in his sarcasm shown to the Persona of asking other men who believe in love to join
him in the happiness of a bridegroom's play. Duncraft the Persona to pity the romantic as a
loving wretch who has a lack of judgment and Clarity in his thinking.

similar leave to operation, in lust Alchemy there is also a sense of dumping women and having
a petrarch whole convention through the stop. The comparisons of a woman to Mummy past
shows this grotesque and also gruesome image of women as if they are physically and
emotionally rotten love is additionally presented as something that cannot merely be a carnal
relationship, for if it were so it would not be worth 12 to be spending your Thrift honor and day
(money, energy, and time) on someone who will almost certainly let you down.

While this may be interpreted as a woman's unfaithfulness and done being cynical towards love
it main fact be him acknowledging the sheer amount of someone's I sense that a lover gives up
for their partner, and him trying to uncover the mystery of why. There is an emphasis in Dunn's
poetry of love being metaphysical and while love may be presented in a negative light, it is still
acknowledged that love is neither purely physical nor purely emotional and makes love an
unsolvable enigma. Done create the sense of Discovery and mysticism through the title, and
Central conceit of the poem, of relating Alchemists to people who still look and believe in love,
comparing love to this impossible and unimaginable Elixir that no one will solve or discover.
Done using this dichotomy of hopelessness and loneliness through his conceit of the poem,
while still using beautiful and simplistic imagery emphasizes how love me feel in the moment,
Everlasting an easy I, however, not being aware of the reality, rejection and heartache.