Love's Progress by John Donne (1654)

Name: Love's Progress
Author: John Donne

Love's Progress presents itself as a discourse on the proper aim and method of love. The speaker opens by declaring that whoever loves without proposing "the right true end of love" is like a man who goes to sea only to be seasick. He likens love to a bear-whelp: if lovers over-lick it into strange new shapes, they err and make a monster of what should be a simple thing, just as a calf grown to resemble a man's face would be monstrous rather than admirable. Since perfection lies in unity, the speaker argues one should prefer one woman, and then one thing in her, rather than loving her for a scattering of separate virtues. He compares this to valuing gold: one may admire its ductileness, application, wholesomeness, and freedom from rust, soil, and fire, but one loves it because it has been made, by use, "the soul of trade." So too with women — even if they possessed all such qualities, a man should love but one. He asks whether men could injure women more than by loving them for qualities by which they are not truly themselves. Virtue does not make a woman, he insists; only barren angels might love in that abstracted way. If men make love to a woman, virtue is not she, nor is beauty, nor wealth, and a man who strays from her to her attributes is more adulterous than one who took her maid. Cupid, the speaker says, is not to be found searching every sphere and firmament; he is an infernal god dwelling underground with Pluto, where gold and fire abound, and men sacrifice to such gods not on altars but in pits and holes. Though celestial bodies move above the earth, it is the earth itself that is tilled and loved; likewise, though a woman's airs, words, heart, and virtues may be contemplated, it is her "centric part" that is loved. The soul, he adds, is no more worthy of love than this. The speaker then turns to the error of those who, in seeking this "desired place," set out at the face. He surveys the female form as a lover's geography: the hair is a forest of ambushes, springes, snares, fetters, and manacles; the brow, smooth, becalms the lover into paradise, but wrinkled, shipwrecks him into a grave. The nose is likened to the first meridian, running between two suns, leaving on either side a rosy hemisphere of cheek, and directing the lover to the "islands fortunate" — not the faint Canaries, but ambrosial ones — her swelling lips, where he anchors and believes himself at home, hearing there the Siren's songs and Delphic oracles. In a creek where chosen pearls swell dwells the remora, her cleaving tongue. Past these and the glorious promontory of her chin, and the strait Hellespont between the Sestos and Abydos of her breasts — nests not of two lovers but of two loves — follows a boundless sea, in which the eye may descry scattered island moles. Sailing toward her "India," the lover comes by that current to her fair Atlantic navel. But even though the current itself pilots him, before he can be embayed where he should be, he meets another forest, where many are shipwrecked and get no further. The speaker concludes that such a chase is misspent by beginning at the face. He then counsels setting out instead from below, practicing this art differently: the foot has a symmetry with the part ultimately sought, and serves as its map — lovely enough to pause at, but not to linger over. The foot is least subject to disguise or change, and, as men say the devil's foot never changes, it has become the emblem of firmness; it is also the first part that comes to bed. The speaker traces how civility has refined the kiss, which began at the face but has since been transplanted to the hand, then to the knee, and now delights to rest at the papal foot. If kings consider that the nearer way, rising from the foot, lovers may do likewise; as free spheres move faster than birds hindered by the air, so a man who takes this "empty and ethereal way" may proceed faster than one who lingers at beauty's outward elements. Rich Nature, he observes, wisely made women with two purses, their mouths laid aversely to them. Those who owe the lower tribute must go by that way, to that exchequer; and one who fails to do so errs as greatly as a man who feeds the stomach by a clyster instead of by the mouth.

By John Donne · First published 1654 · Genre: Metaphysical Poetry, Erotic Poetry, Love Poetry · 1,192 words

First lines

Whoever loves, if he do not propose / The right true end of love, he's one that goes / To sea for nothing but to make him sick. / Love is a bear-whelp born; if we o'er-lick / Our love, and force it new strange shapes to take, / We err, and of a lump a monster make. / Were not a calf a monster, that were grown / Faced like a man, though better than his own? / Perfection is in unity; prefer / One woman first, and then one thing in her. / I, when I value gold, may think upon / The ductileness, the application, / The wholesomeness, the ingenuity, / From rust, from soil, from fire ever free; / But if I love it, 'tis because 'tis made / By our new nature, use, the soul of trade. / All this in women we might think upon, / -If women had them-and yet love but one. / Can men more injure women than to say / They love them for that, by which they're not they? / Makes virtue woman? must I cool my blood / Till I both be, and find one wise and good? / May barren angels love so. But if we / Make love to woman, virtue is not she, / As beauty is not, nor wealth. He that strays thus / From her to hers is more adulterous / Than if he took her maid. Search every sphere / And firmament, our Cupid is not there. / He's an infernal God, and underground / With Pluto dwells, where gold and fire abound. / Men to such gods their sacrificing coals / Did not on altars lay, but pits and holes. / Although we see celestial bodies move / Above the earth, the earth we till and love. / So we her airs contemplate, words and heart, / And virtues, but we love the centric part.

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Love's Progress is listed on Textopian as a poem by John Donne, dated 1654 CE.

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Work type: Poem
Author: John Donne
Date: 1654 CE
Language: English
Genres: Metaphysical Poetry, Erotic Poetry, Love Poetry, Philosophical Poetry, Satirical Poetry
Length: 1,192 words
Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

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Similar titles

Genres

Metaphysical Poetry — Donne exemplifies this genre through elaborate conceits (love as bear-whelp, navigation as metaphor for desire), intellectual argumentation about love's true end, fusion of sensuality with philosophical inquiry, and characteristic wit combining unlikely elements
Erotic Poetry — Explicitly focused on physical desire and sensuality; features detailed, eroticized descriptions of the female body as a geographical landscape to be explored, with sexual instruction and passionate imagery throughout
Love Poetry — Explores the nature of love, desire, and proper approaches to loving; investigates what constitutes authentic love versus false or misdirected romantic attachment
Philosophical Poetry — Interrogates fundamental questions about love's nature, purpose, and proper end; explores relationships between virtue, beauty, wealth, desire, and true love