"Sweetest Love, I do Not Go" by John Donne

                                                     

"Sweetest Love, I Do Not Goe" by John Donne is a love poem grounded in a deeply religious sensibility. The poem is addressed by a male narrator to a female beloved. The poem begins conventionally, with the narrator explaining that his travel is necessary and not evidence of lack of love. It metaphorically compares separation to a sort of temporary death, and pleads that the beloved not weep or show sorrow, or be afraid that he will be somehow injured, as he will be motivated to return quickly. He reassures her that he will be as constant as the sun that disappears each night but reliably returns the next morning.

"Sweetest Love, I Do Not Goe" by John Donne is a love poem grounded in a deeply religious sensibility. The poem is addressed by a male narrator to a female beloved. The poem begins conventionally, with the narrator explaining that his travel is necessary and not evidence of lack of love. It metaphorically compares separation to a sort of temporary death, and pleads that the beloved not weep or show sorrow, or be afraid that he will be somehow injured, as he will be motivated to return quickly. He reassures her that he will be as constant as the sun that disappears each night but reliably returns the next morning.

In stanza four, the woman (probably his wife) becomes real: she is sighing and weeping, behaviour which he discourages with the conceit that she is wasting his soul (air in sighing) and blood (liquid in tears) by her expressed emotion.  Yet there is another small knot in the line: she is "unkindly kind" a perplexing contradiction that she is true in spirit but cruel to him. We feel that she will not be brought round by the argument that, if she loved him, she would not use up his powers like this but she would, perhaps, be moved by the final compliment that she represents the best of him.  The thought processes in this poem are less dense and complicated than in others but still require careful attention.

The speaker's mind is endlessly active whilst he continues in lyric mode and ends with a plea that she should not forecast any misfortune with her "divining heart" as fate may do what she dreads. Instead she should think of the separation as a sleep during which they keep each other alive in what is not, therefore, truly a parting.  Despite the song-like quality of the poetry, the line of thought is always present and demands concentration but on an easier level, consistent with being literally a setting to music.