Lovers' Infiniteness by John Donne

Name: Lovers' Infiniteness
Author: John Donne

The poem opens as the speaker tells his beloved that if he does not already possess all of her love, he never will: he has exhausted every means of winning it, spending all his sighs, tears, oaths, and letters, and no more devotion can be owed him than the bargain first allowed. If her gift of love was only partial, with some portion destined for others, he will never possess her entirely. He then considers the alternative: that she did once give him all of her love — but "all" only meant all she then possessed. He worries that if new love is or will be created in her heart by other men, men whose stocks of devotion are still entire and who might outbid him in tears, sighs, oaths, and letters, this new love could breed new fears, since it was never vowed to him specifically. Yet he reasons it still belongs to him, because her gift was general: her heart itself is the ground he was given, so whatever grows there afterward should also be his. In the final movement, the speaker decides he would not, after all, wish to possess all her love immediately. One who already has all can receive no more, and since his own love grows daily, admitting new increase, she ought to have new rewards to offer him in turn. He notes the paradox of love: she cannot give her heart anew each day, for if she could give it, she never truly gave it before — love's riddle being that even as the heart departs, it stays at home, and losing it is a way of preserving it. Instead of this exchange of hearts, the speaker proposes a more generous way: rather than trading hearts back and forth, the two should join them, so that they become one, each entirely the other's all.

By John Donne · First published 1633 · Genre: Metaphysical Poetry, Love Poetry, Lyric Poetry · 417 words

First lines

If yet I have not all thy love, / Dear, I shall never have it all; / I cannot breathe one other sigh, to move, / Nor can intreat one other tear to fall; / And all my treasure, which should purchase thee, / Sighs, tears, and oaths, and letters I have spent; / Yet no more can be due to me, / Than at the bargain made was meant. / If then thy gift of love were partial, / That some to me, some should to others fall, / Dear, I shall never have thee all.

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Lovers' Infiniteness is listed on Textopian as a poem by John Donne, dated 1633 CE.

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Work type: Poem
Author: John Donne
Date: 1633 CE
Language: English
Genres: Metaphysical Poetry, Love Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Philosophical Poetry, Baroque Poetry
Length: 417 words
Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)

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Genres

Metaphysical Poetry — The poem exemplifies metaphysical poetry through complex philosophical conceits (love as gift and possession, the heart as ground for growth) and intellectual exploration of abstract emotional concepts using logical argumentation and paradox.
Love Poetry — Romantic love and the speaker's desire for complete mutual affection form the central theme, exploring possession, commitment, and the anxieties of incomplete emotional reciprocation.
Lyric Poetry — The work expresses personal, intimate emotion directed at the beloved through first-person meditation and introspection, emphasizing subjective feeling over narrative action.
Philosophical Poetry — The poem engages in logical argumentation and paradoxical reasoning about love's nature, infinity, and the problem of possession, treating emotional experience as a philosophical puzzle to be solved through wit and reasoning.