Love's Exchange by John Donne (1633)
A speaker addresses Love directly, contrasting it with every other devil, which would give something in return for a soul surrendered to it; Love alone has taken everything from the speaker and given nothing back, leaving him lower for having been humble. He states that he no longer asks for any dispensation to falsify a tear, a sigh, or a vow, nor does he seek to draw from Love a "non obstante" on nature's law; such privileges belong only to Love and its own, reserved for those who are Love's favorites. He asks Love instead to give him weakness, to make him blind in both eyes and mind, as Love and Love's own are; he asks never to know that his feeling is love, or that love is childish, and never to know that others know that she is aware of his suffering, lest that tender shame become a new sorrow uniquely his own. He allows that if Love gives him nothing, Love is still just, because he would not trust Love's first advances: small towns that stand firm until great force compels them do not get to set terms once broken, and in Love's warfare his case is the same — having at last let Love see "this face," he may not bargain for grace. He then praises "this face" itself, saying it could command and change the idolatry of any land, that wherever it appears it can call vowed men from cloisters and the dead from tombs, melt both poles at once, fill deserts with cities, and create more mines in the earth than there were quarries before. Because of this face, Love is enraged with him, yet does not kill him; he says that if he must serve as an example to future rebels against Love, and if the unborn must learn by his being cut up and torn, then Love should kill and dissect him outright, for the torture Love currently inflicts works against Love's own purpose, since a racked carcass makes a poor anatomy specimen.
By John Donne · First published 1633 · Genre: Metaphysical Poetry, Love Poetry, Lyric Poetry · 479 words
First lines
Love, any devil else but you / Would for a given soul give something too. / At court your fellows every day / Give th' art of rhyming, huntsmanship, or play, / For them which were their own before; / Only I have nothing, which gave more, / But am, alas! by being lowly, lower.
I ask no dispensation now, / To falsify a tear, or sigh, or vow; / I do not sue from thee to draw / A non obstante on nature's law; / These are prerogatives, they inhere / In thee and thine; none should forswear / Except that he Love's minion were.
What this Textopian page supports
Love's Exchange is listed on Textopian as a poem by John Donne, dated 1633 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: John Donne
- Date: 1633 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Metaphysical Poetry, Love Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Courtly Love, Baroque Literature
- Length: 479 words
- Structure: 1 section, 6 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Love's Exchange by John Donne
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph
Similar titles
- A Valediction Of Weeping by John Donne
- His Parting From Her by John Donne
- Loves Deity by John Donne
- Loves Alchemy by John Donne
- Lovers Infiniteness by John Donne
- A Valediction To His Book by John Donne
Genres
- Metaphysical Poetry — Employs characteristic Donne conceits, paradoxes, and intellectual wit to argue complex emotional propositions about love and sacrifice; uses elaborate metaphors (military siege, anatomical dissection) to explore abstract concepts.
- Love Poetry — Central theme throughout addresses romantic love, desire, vulnerability, and the emotional transaction between lover and beloved; explores the speaker's total emotional investment in the beloved.
- Lyric Poetry — Presents intimate personal emotion and introspection; uses first-person voice to express the speaker's subjective experience of love's torment and longing.
- Courtly Love — References court setting and conventions of courtly love tradition; portrays the beloved as idealized and transcendent; depicts the lover's subordination and suffering as noble and expected.
Tags
metaphysical-poetry · seventeenth-century-literature · love-poetry · romantic-themes · reciprocal-love · philosophical-exploration · wit-and-conceit · passionate-intensity · devotion · religious-undertones · intellectual-love · paradox