The Paradox by John Donne (1633)
A speaker rejects the very notion that a lover can declare his own love or that anyone can judge a true lover, insisting that each lover believes no other can love as he does. He refuses to say he loved, comparing such a claim to a dead man saying he was killed yesterday. Love burns with excessive heat while death kills with cold, and since we die but once, whoever loved last has truly died; anyone who claims to have loved twice lies, for any apparent continued movement or stirring afterward is merely an illusion that deceives the senses. Such a lingering semblance of life resembles light that remains visible after its source has been extinguished, or the heat that fire leaves behind in solid matter two hours later. The speaker declares that he once loved and died, and has now become his own epitaph and tomb: here dead men speak their last words, and so does he, proclaiming himself love-slain as he dies.
By John Donne · First published 1633 · Genre: Metaphysical Poetry, Love Poetry, Philosophical Poetry · 231 words
First lines
No lover saith, I love, nor any other / Can judge a perfect lover; / He thinks that else none can or will agree, / That any loves but he; / I cannot say I loved, for who can say / He was kill'd yesterday. / Love with excess of heat, more young than old, / Death kills with too much cold; / We die but once, and who loved last did die, / He that saith, twice, doth lie; / For though he seem to move, and stir a while, / It doth the sense beguile. / Such life is like the light which bideth yet / When the life's light is set, / Or like the heat which fire in solid matter / Leaves behind, two hours after. / Once I loved and died; and am now become / Mine epitaph and tomb; / Here dead men speak their last, and so do I; / Love-slain, lo! here I die.
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The Paradox 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, Philosophical Poetry, Elegy, Baroque Poetry
- Length: 231 words
- Structure: 1 section, 1 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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Genres
- Metaphysical Poetry — Donne epitomizes metaphysical verse; the poem exhibits hallmark conceits linking love and death through paradoxical reasoning and intellectual wit, exploring abstract philosophical truths through striking imagery.
- Love Poetry — Love and its paradoxes form the central subject—the poem examines perfect love's incomparability, its excess and destructive intensity, and the impossibility of perfect love existing between multiple people.
- Philosophical Poetry — The work engages in sustained abstract reasoning about the nature of love, death, consciousness, and existence, using paradox as a foundational philosophical apparatus.
- Elegy — The speaker functions as lamenting voice mourning personal spiritual death caused by love, culminating in explicit self-description as 'Love-slain' and dwelling in epitaph and tomb.
Tags
metaphysical poetry · paradox · spirituality · love · mortality · religious themes · soul · contradiction · Renaissance literature · metaphor · introspection · human condition