John Donne : use of Conceit

Conceit in Donne's Poetry:

Donne uses literally devise conceit in his poetry. A conceit is basically a comparison between two dissimilar things. According to Dr. Johnson, the most heterogeneous( quite different) ideas are yoked by violence together. 

Through the use of conceit , Donne does not confine comparison to any single point.He gets the attention of reader by drawing fresh points of likeness. His poem "Aire and Angels" is based upon the single conceit that since angels in order to appear were forced to take on bodies of air, so Donne's passion is forced to fix itself in the love of the beloved.Element of likenes in the conceit is transformation.In this very poem, we find a fantastic comparison which the poet makes between woman and ship. He says if a ship is overloaded it will sink,similarly if a woman overdecorates herself,she may lose her honour.

Donne draws conceit from a wide range of subjects,such as exploration,philosophy,mathematics ,astronomy etc.Such type of conceits has given intellectual tone to his poetry. In the poem," A valediction: of weeping", he takes conceit from mintage where coins are made.He make comparison between tears of a lover and coins.

" Let me pour forth

My tears before thy face, whilst I stay here,

For thy face coins them, and thy stamp they bear."

Element of likeness in this conceit is that both tears and coins are precious,both stay at special place and through both ,something can be won i.e Through coins something from market and through tears the heart of beloved.

In another poem,"Goe and catche a falling starre", he has drawn images from the fields of astronomy by saying that as it is difficult to catch a falling star, so it is difficult to find a true and faithful woman.Then he compares woman with an object of forestry when he says that as it is difficult to get delivered a child by mandrake tree,so it is impossible to find a faithful woman. He also compares the faithfulness of woman with a mythological figure.he says that it is impossible to hear the song mermaids,so it is impossible to find a faithful woman in the world. In the poem'"Good Morrow", he draws conciet from sea discoveries and geography and compares himself and his beloved with two hemispheres of the world.

"Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,

And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;

Where can we find two better hemispheres,

Without sharp north, without declining west? 

Donne's use of conceit is always relevant. In his poems,very seldom an image is used without  relevance.By finding this relevancy, one feels admiration,an intellectual pleasure and sense of surprise at the originality and ingenuity of the poet. For example in the poem "THe Anniversary" he compares his beloved and himself with the king and his subjects.

"Here upon earth,we are king,and none but we

can be such kings, or of such subjects be."

Donne made the use iof conceit to illustrate and persuade his points.For example in the poem " Valediction:  Forbidding mourning", by comparing lovers with compass, he wants to persuade his mistress not to mourn. Similarly in the poem," The sun rising" , by comparing the world of love ,which according to the poet is immune from any change,with the world of sun, where every time changes take place, the poet wants to illustrate that love is supreme.

" love all alike,no season knowes, nor clyme,

Not hours,days,monthes, which are the rags of time."

To sum up we can say that Donne's use of conceit is superb. His imagery brings together the opposites of life,all in one breath.We admire the novelty ,realism, justness and range of his conceits.