Bold and Bland Donne: To his Mistress Going to Bed

 Donne--Universal and Ever-Green

Sex is one of the most common subject dealt in all literature of the world, but, as most of the societies are conservative, they tend to avoid talking about sex in public. Yet, in every age, we have writers who are bold and bland to talk about this subject realistically without mincing sexual orientation of people. Love of woman nakedness is common to all men, though there are countless who say that it is morally low and beneath human dignity. 

“To his Mistress Going to Bed” is one of the best photographic poems written by John Donne. Though it was common practice with Elizabethan poets to write verses to praise bodies of their mistresses, Donne is special as he elevates everything to a level never reached before in the history of literature.

The poem is erotic—there is no doubt about it. The poet presents his argument in most possible sensuous way, but, it is real and authentic—people go to bed in this fashion—at least when they are very young. People can go in denial, and they will tell a lie.

The speaker of the poem, which most probably is Donne himself, wants his mistress with him in the bed as he is finding it very hard resist his desire. “Until I labour, I in labour lie.”

The analogy which follows is stunning and astonishing. There are situations when enemies are in front of their enemies, but instead of fighting they just stand and do not attack. This thing exhausts them and one or both of them are defeated without an actual fight.

He asks his mistress to remove her belt which is like heavenly light but which is hiding some unsurpassed beauty behind. He also asks her to unpin her colourful breastplate which she was wearing to keep the eyes of busy fools off her breast.

After breastplate, he demands her to unlace herself as the night has grown old enough to go bed—he can hear the sweet chiming of her beloved’s watch. He does not like the happy busk of his beloved. He feels envious of that object—he does not want this object to come between him and his mistress.

When he sees the gown of his beloved going off, he feels that shadow of a mountain has been taken away to reveal the beauty of flowery meadow. His next demand is the removal of a wiry coronet so that he could see the crown of her hair on her head. He wants her to take off her shoes and climb their soft bed silently—he calls their bed temple of their love—something sacred and religious.

 Now he speaks about the white dress of his beloved. He says that angels when they appeared to human beings, used to wear white dresses; she also has angel like qualities like the ones there are in the heaven promised to Muslims by their Prophet. He further elaborates that evil spirits also wear white robes, but they can be distinguished from angels as evil spirits makes the hairs to stand while angels give a different feel of energy in human body. He desires his beloved to permit him to explore every limb of her body.

In the lines which follow the speaker tells his beloved that she is her America—his new-found country. He declares her his kingdom and this kingdom is the safest when it is ruled by just one man. He does not stop here—he addresses her as his precious stone, his empire. He feels blessed that he is allowed to explore her. Tying knot with her has freed him from all things. Wherever he places his hand on the body of his beloved, that part of her body is stamped by his love and comes into his ownership.

He goes on with his demands and asks her to take of everything off from her body. It is necessary to enjoy the real bliss of love. Bodies are shed behind by the souls when they enter the heaven, so dresses and other accessories should be left behind to taste the whole joy of love. Gems which women wear to adorn themselves are just distractions. There are men who like them but wise men never like them—they like the ones who wear gem not the gems.

People who like women for their adornment are like people who like books because of their glittering and shining covers. Instead books should be liked because of their content and subject matter. Women are like mystic books and their adornments are like the covers of books. As books can be enjoyed only after opening them, so women can be enjoyed only when they are wearing nothing.

Actually he wants his beloved to reveal her body to him like women reveal their bodies to their midwives. He assures her that doing so will not involve any sin as she will do so out of innocence. Finally, he tells her that she should take off her dress as he has done—why should she cover her body more than he is covering his own as they are equal in partners in love.