John Donne: As a love poet or modern poet

                      John Donne as A love poet or Modern Poet

John Donne is famous as love poet as well as modern poet.He brought changes in English poetry. He changed the theme of love and he also employed new techniques in poetry
Before Donne there was a concept of platonic love which means spiritual love in poetry. he gives the idea there must be physical love between two lovers along with spiritual love.In the poem,"Aire and Angels", he is of the opinion that real love is both combination of spiritual and phsyical love.As he says in these lines,
"Twice or thrice had i loved thee". 
Further he discusses relationship of body and soul.In the poem," Good-Morrow", he says to his beloved that they should forget their childish love and now they should share physical love with each other.
"If our two loves be one,or thou and I"
His philosophy is that,love merely of the body ,is not love but lust, and love is not real if it is the soul alone,it must partake both of the soul and body.
Chivalry in his love poetry:
Previously woman was given much respect. In that time she was treated as goddess.Donne is against this concept and calls her as common creature in his work.In the poem ,"Valediction:forbidding Mourning" he compares woman and man with compass.He calls woman as foot of compass who stays at one point .
Donne ideas about woman changes in every poem.He says in the poem, 'The Good-Morrow" that the central point between lover and beloved and those who have physical love or whose loves are based on physical attraction can't be seperated.
"If our two loves be one,or,thou and I
love so alike,that none do slacken, nor can die"
But he also treats woman ironically and satirically when in the song ,"Goe and catche a falling star", he criticizes woman for not being faithful.He says as it is impossible and difficult to catch a falling star from sky so it is impossible to find a true and faithful woman in the world.
As he says,

"Though she were true, when you met her,

And last, till you write your letter,

            Yet she

            Will be

False, ere I come, to two, or three."

 In the poem" The Relique ", he also criticizes woman, when he compares woman with graves.He says that as graves are full of so many dead bodies same is the case with bed of woman.She entertains so many men.She is not faithful to any one.His treatment towards woman changes with his mood.
As a love poet,he also brought changes in the techniques of love poems.For the first he starts colloquial language in his poetry.In the poem'"The sun Rising",he abuses sun who shines at them when they are busy in physical love.As he says,
"Busie old foole unruly sunne".
And "for God's sake hold your tongue".
Another technique employed by him is the use of allusions in his poetry.In this very poem,he compares his beloved with spice of India and mines of west India .Similarly in the poem ," Good Morrow", Donne gives the allusion of Bible when he questions his beloved whether,before they fell in love, they were sleeping like those seven ssleepers who slept in a cave for ages.
"Or snorted we in the seven sleepers den."
To sum up we can say, due to all these changes he brought in English poetry and love poetry, he is called modern poet.He changed the classical concept of love in his poems.He introduced quite new things in the world of love poetry,which are different from petrarchan period and classical period too.