INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BUSINESS, SOCIAL AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

ISSN: 2309-7892 (Online), 2519-5530 (Print), Volume: 6, Issue: 2, Page: 45-50, January - June 2018
Review Paper

LOVE, SEX AND ADMIRATION OF WOMEN IN ENGLISH POETRY

*Md. Shaon Akter 1, Md. Sozib Hosen1 and Tanna Khatun1

[Citation: Md. Shaon Akter, Md. Sozib Hosen and Tanna Khatun (2018). Love, sex and admiration of women in English
Poetry. Int. J. Bus. Soc. Sci. Res. 6(2): 45-50. Retrieve from http://www.ijbssr.com/currentissueview/14013255]

Received Date: 07/01/2018 Acceptance Date: 06/01/18 Published Date: 08/02/18

Abstract
The type of poetry, beginning in the late 16th Century till the 17thCentury, was a form of
poetry that has come to be known as the poetry of Metaphysical school of thought. Love, the
most felt and discussed emotion of human mind, has been a dominant theme of all branches
of literature of all ages. But the treatment of love has been different from one to another,
from poets to poets. John Donne has also used “Love” to be an important theme of his
poetry. Since love may be different from man to man, time to time, Donne has also treated
love realistically to be different from others. Thus, it is not very easy to find out a simple
definition of love as Donne has presented in his poems. And ‘To His Coy Mistress’ is one of
the two best love poems of Andrew Marvell, another metaphysical poet. The European
dimension of the Catholic poets Crashaw and South well has been commented on by others.
In this poem, the speaker raises arguments with his beloved to be soft towards him and to
relax her firm attitude of puritan reluctance to grant him sexual favors. And in “Delight in
Disorder” Robert Herrick admires the beauty and dress of a woman.
Key words: Metaphysical poem, John Donne, Andrew Marvell and Robert Herrick.
Introduction
Poetry, an important branch of English Literature, is saturated with the themes of love, sex and
admiration of women, especially in Metaphysical poetry. Though it is not a poetic movement in the
sense of having a manifesto (as did the Romantics), metaphysical poet’s explored similar themes,
such as love, sex and religion, approaching them in a practical yet transcendent manner. In the
opinion of one critic of the 1960s, defining the extent of the Baroque style in 17th-century English
poetry “may even be said to have taken the place of the earlier discussion of the metaphysical”
(White, Helen 1964). In most of the writings of English Literature, it is found the use of love, sex and
admiration of woman. In Shakespearean period, William Shakespeare emphasizes love in “The
Merchant of Venice”, and “As You Like It”. In Victorian period, Thomas Hardy also emphasizes
love and sex in Tess of “The D’Urbervilles”. In modern period T. S. Eliot, W. B. Yeats, W. H.
Auden emphasizes love and sex. In the 17th Century, John Donne and Andrew Marvel strongly
emphasized love and sex. For this reason two writers are chosen from metaphysical poetry and
another, Robert Herrick from Cavalier poets.
Methodology
Here three writers, an English poet and cleric in the Church of England, John Donne (22 January
1572 – 31 March 1631), an English metaphysical poet, Andrew Marvell (31 March 1621 – 16 August
1678) and a 17th century English lyric poet and cleric, Robert Herrick (baptized 24 August 1591 –
buried 15 October 1674) and also their poems are discussed. Among all the writers of English
Literature, John Donne, Andrew Marvell emphasizes love and sex in their poems. Sir Robert Herrick
admires the beauty of a woman in his poem “Delight in Disorder”. These poems are collected from
the book “The Norton Anthology of poetry”. In the chapter on Abraham Cowley in his Lives of the
Most Eminent English Poets (1779–81), Samuel Johnson refers to the beginning of the seventeenth

*Corresponding Author’s Email: [email protected]

1
Lecturer, Department of English, Khwaja Yunus Ali University, Sirajgonj, Bangladesh
Love, sex and admiration of women 46
century in which there "appeared a race of writers that may be termed the metaphysical poets". This
does not necessarily imply that he intended metaphysical to be used in its true sense, in that he was
probably referring to a witticism of John Dryden, who said of John Donne:
He affects the metaphysics, not only in his satires, but in his amorous verses, where nature only
should reign; and perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy, when he
should engage their hearts, and entertain them with the soft nesses of love. Mr. Cowley has copied
him to a fault. (Gardner, Helen, 1957). A later study compared his approach to that of such Baroque
Poets as Giambattista Marino and Francisco de Quevedo, who in his time were influencing the
Spanish-language poets of the New World. (Alfred Owen Aldridge 1982)
Results and Discussion
Three elements are found in Donne’s poems regarding love and sex. The first is mocking attitude
which is anti-woman and hostile to the fair sex. The second is of happy married life or of mutual
love. The third is supremacy of love with philosophical interpretation. The poet begins “Go and
Catch a Falling Star” (M.H.Abrams.-NY Norton, 1993.) in which the poet wants a true and fair
mistress with an impossible imagery followed by many others only to prove the impossibility of
discovering a true and faithful women,
“Go and catch a falling star
Since it is not possible to catch a falling star and to produce a
Get with child a mandrake root”
Line: 1-2 (Go and catch a falling star) child with mandrake root, it is also not possible to find a
(by John Donne) woman true and fair. The poet says,
“And swear
Here the anti-women attitude is disclosed towards Donne’s No where
poem (Donne 1896). Some examples are also in ‘Woman’s Lives a woman true and fair”
Constancy’, ‘The Indifferent’, The Apparition and ‘Love Line: 16-18 (Go and catch a falling star)
Usury’. (by John Donne)

The second element is the simple, pure, mutual love and the best in mutual love. Many of them are
addressed to his wife Anne More. The
“A breach, but an expansion
Anniversary written to celebrate the second
Like gold to aery thinness beat.
anniversary of his weeding gives a fine picture
Their two souls are actually one, but
of domestic bliss. In ‘A Valediction: Forbidding
If they be two, they are two so
Mourning’, a departing husband is arguing his
As stiff twin compasses are two”
wife not to tear, because his departure is not a Line: 23-27 (A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning)
breach but an expansion. The poet John Donne (by John Donne)
says in the poem “A Valediction: Forbidding
Mourning”

Here it is seen that the wife is the fixed character while the husband is the moving character who
must return again to meet her mistress. There is a
She is all states and all princes, I, mysterious relationship between them. It is known that love
Nothing else is.” is the conjunction of mind. In “The Sun Rising” the poet
Line: 21-22 (The Sun Rising)
(by John Donne) says,

“If ever any beauty I did see

Here the lover does not know anything except Which I deserved, and got, was but
his beloved. a dream of thee”
and,
Third is the supremacy of love. The poet “If our two loves be one, or thou and I
sometimes says that physical love is the best Love so alike, that none so slacken, none can die”
and also says that spiritual love is the best Here the supremacy of spiritual love is found.
and again says that spiritual love out of Line: 6-11(The Good Morrow)
physical love is the best. In “The Good (by John Donne)
Morrow” the poet says,

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Akter et al. 47
In “The Canonization”, the poet asks his friend to let
“And by these hymns, all shall approve
them love each other without any interference
Us canonized for love”
because they are not making anything do serious for Line: 35-36 (Canonization)
the world. They have forsaken the entire material (by John Donne)
world. The poet emphasizes that through their
physical love; they will be approved as canonized for
love and regarded as saints of love. They try to prove themselves as a good sign for the world. The
poet says in the Canonization,

“Loves mysteries in souls do grow

Here it is also found that physical love turns into spiritual
But yet the body is his book”
is that of “The Ecstasy” Line: 71-72 (The Ecstasy)
(by John Donne)
A different approach to defining the community of readers
is to survey who speaks of whom, and in what manner, in their poetry. On the death of Donne, it is
natural that his friend Edward Herbert should write him an elegy full of high-flown and exaggerated
Metaphysical logic, (Elegy for Doctor Donne, Poetry Explorer). In a similar way, Abraham Cowley
marks the deaths of Crashsaw (Grierson, poem 138) and of another member of Donne’s literary
circle, Henry Wotton. (The life of Henry Wotton, pp-161-162). Izaac Walton, The Life of Henry
Wotton, pp.161-2
In "To His Coy Mistress", three stanza poem by
Had we but world enough and time,
Andrew Marvell, the poet is speaking to his coy
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
mistress.In the first stanza, the poet tells his mistress
We would sit down, and think which way
not an old woman on the side but simply an
To walk, and pass our long love’s day…..
Line: 1-4 (To His Coy Mistress) eroticlady—that if they had had more time and space,
(by Andrew Marvell) they would sit down in a innocent place and think
and walk and pass their long love’s day with
romance. He goes on to describe how much he would
complement and admire her if time permitted. The poet focuses on every inch of her body until he
got to the heart.
And also says,
In the second stanza, the poet basically tells her that Two hundred to adore each breast,
the writer and his beloved don't have time and they But thirty thousand to the rest;
are about to get old and die. The writer says that life An age at least to every part,
is very short but death is eternal and time is running Line: 15-17 (To His Coy Mistress)
out so the writer and his beloved should enjoy their (by Andrew Marvell)
time and do sex. In addition, the poet warns the
woman that when she is buried in her coffin, the worms will take her virginity if she doesn’t have sex
with him before they die. And, if she refuses to sleep with him, all his sexual desire will burn up into
ashes for all time. The poet says,
Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
My echoing song; then worms shall try And while thy willing soul transpires
That long-preserved virginity, At every pore with instant fires,
And your quaint honor turn to dust, Now let us while we may,
And into ashes all my lust; And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Line: 26-30 (To His Coy Mistress) Rather at once our time devour
(by Andrew Marvell) Than languish in his slow-chapped power.
Line: 33-40 (To His Coy Mistress)
In the third stanza, the poet begs the lady to have (by Andrew Marvell)
sex with him while they are still young because
after death, their sexual desire and virginity burns into ashes. He points out a pair of birds mating and
suggests that that is how their lovemaking should be—raw, passionate, and primal. The poet says in
the “To His Coy Mistress”,
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Love, sex and admiration of women 48

In the final stanza, the poet says that they can’t make time stop, but they can exchange places with it.
According to him, whenever have sex, they pursue time, instead of the other way around. Thus, sex
makes the day more pleasurable and it makes the day go by much faster. It is known that good time
passes quickly.
Delight in Disorder is an erotic poem of English literature by Robert Herrick, the Cavalier poet
(1591-1674). The poem attracts the heart of every reader by its imagery and lyrical quality and
harmonious ends rhyme. In the poem, the poet expresses his feelings of erotic happiness derived
from the disordered dress of a woman.
Late additions to the Metaphysical canon have included sacred poets of both England and America
who had been virtually unknown for centuries. John Norris was better known as a Platonist
philosopher. Platonic ideas had earlier played their part in the love poetry of others, often to be
ridiculed there, although Edward Herbert took the theme of “Platonic Love” more seriously in his
poems with that title. (Sarah Hutton 1994,)
Let us now interpret the ‘Cavalier Poet’. Actually the world “Cavalier’ derived from ‘Carolos’, the
Latin version of Charles. The reign of Charles I (1625-1649) was the time of ‘English Civil War’,
fought between the supporters of king known a ‘Cavaliers’ and the supporters of the parliament
known as “Round head”. However, a group of lyric poets associated with the ‘Cavaliers’ are called
the Cavalier poets, for example, Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace Sir Johan Suckling and Thomas
Carew,. These poets are also called the ‘Sons of Ben’ as they were admirers and followers of Ben
Jonson. They usually wrote short lyric poems, generally in lighter vein, gay, trivial, witty and often
licentious. The main object of their poems was the ‘woman and beauty’.
Robert Herrick is, indeed, a Cavalier poet. Because his poetry especially “Delight in Disorder’ bears
all the characteristics of a Cavalier poet’s writings. In the poem, the characteristics of a Cavalier
poet’s writings are here.
The poem ‘Delight in Disorder’ is notably short in length and very much witty as well as licentious
in theme. It deals with the description of a disorderly dressed lady. Most probably, the name of the
lady is ‘Julia’.
It is found that in the very beginning of the poem, the poet traces out a disorder in the lawn that is
thrown carelessly about the shoulders. The poet says,
A sweet disorder in the dress
The lawn should be attached with her shoulders but the lady
Kindles in clothes a wantonness;
is one is free from her neck. This is the source of joy for the
A lawn about the shoulders thrown
poet. It is very interesting that the speaker in this poem
Into a fine distraction;
would note disordered in the appearance of the people Line: 1-4 (Delight in Disorder)
around him. Because there was little disorder in society and (by Robert Herrick)
the lifestyle and he was accustomed to and also noticed the
disorder in the small things such as the attire of the people
around him. For example, he noticed if someone was not wearing a dress exactly or properly it would
mean nothing. He noticed small “kindles in clothes” which to him were “wantonness”. These little
examples of disorder represented to the speaker, a subtle way of going astray. That is why he
specifically uses the word “wantonness”. He then describes a lawn that has not been properly cared
for. While some people would see a mess, this poet enjoys the sight of “a lawn about the shoulders
thrown into a fine distraction”. Even a lawn left to itself long enough to be shoulder height was
something, this speaker considered “sweet” and “a fine
distraction”. He does not expound upon just what the lawn An earring lace, which here and
distracts him from, but it is clear that the lawn left to itself there
possessed a beauty that allowed the speaker to be distracted Enthralls the crimson stomacher;
from something in his every day, likely rigid life. It offered A cuff neglectful, and thereby
something different from the structure and ideals of Rebinds to flow confusedly;
society. Line: 5-8 (Delight in Disorder)
Next, the poet finds another disorder in her stomacher. As (by Robert Herrick)
the poet describes:
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Akter et al. 49
Thirdly, the poet gets one more disorder in her cuff which is used carelessly in lady’s hand. Again,
the speaker seems to focus on the clothing of the people around him. The description of “an erring
lace” and “crimson stomacher” suggests that he is noticing flaws particularly in women’s’ clothing.
He delights in these subtle little evidences of disorder. He enjoys to see “a cuff neglectful” or perhaps
not folded quite right. He also enjoys seeing “rebinds…flow confusedly”. When he saw someone
whose appearance was not quite neat and tidy, he did not see them as messy or neglectful, but rather
he saw it as something unique and beautiful.
As the poet narrates:
“A cuff neglectful and thereby;
Ribbons to flow confusedly.”
Line: 5-8 (Delight in Disorder)
(by Robert Herrick)
Fourthly, the poet notices a disorder in lady’s petticoat. In poet’s speech:
“A winning wave, deserving note, in the tempestuous petticoat”
Line: 9 (Delight in Disorder)
(by Robert Herrick)
The petticoat should be well attached with body, but the petticoat of the lady is waiving in the air.
The poet thinks that it is a delightful meter.
Finally, the poet discovers a disorder in her shoestring. As the poetremarks,
“A careless shoestring in whose tie
I see a wild civility:”
Line: 10-11 (Delight in Disorder)
(by Robert Herrick)
Generally, disorder makes a man displeased but in case of poet, it makes him pleased as he says;
“Do More Bewitch me them when art
Is too precise in every part.”
Line: 12-13 (Delight in Disorder)
(by Robert Herrick)
With these lines, the speaker continues to refer to women’s clothing when he describes the “winning
wave” and “deserving note” which he finds when he sees a “tempestuous petticoat”. The word
“tempestuous” refers to a “tempest” or a great storm. This particular petticoat must have been
entirely out of place so that it looked at though it had survived a great storm. And yet, the speaker
takes delight in it. He describes his enjoyment in seeing “a careless shoe-string”. He finds
amusement in this shoe-string because in it, he sees “wild civility”. This phrase offers some insight
into the rest of this poem. The speaker here does not necessarily enjoy all kinds of disorder. Rather,
he describes subtle disorders in dress and lawn care. This reveals that although he knows order must
be followed in society and in the world at large, he enjoys seeing disorder in the subtle things
because he knows that it reveals individuality. To him, the disorder he sees is not the lack of civility,
but rather, “wild civility”. While these people he has seen are still living according to the rules of
civility and society, they are also expressing their disorder and individuality in subtle ways which the
speaker enjoys observing. The speaker then explains that all of these little evidences of individual
disorder “bewitch” him ever more so than “when art is too precise in every part”. Thus, what the
speaker sees as true art, is the slight disorder he sees in everyday life. This disorder is evidence of
individuality and the uniqueness of each person and his or her lifestyle. Everything that the speaker
notes as an evidence of “sweet” disorder is something that could be easily fixed, but he does not want
it to be fixed to fit the rigid standard of society. Rather, he enjoys experiencing those little subtle
things in which a person could express his own “wild civility”. These people he has watched are not
necessarily going against society. They are not living as uncivilized people. This reveals the speaker
appreciation for some order and civility in life. However, his enjoyment in the little evidences of

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Love, sex and admiration of women 50
disorder reveal his appreciation for the individual. When he sees a ruffled petticoat or a shoe string
untied, or a lace out of place or a cuff not folded quite right, or a lawn left uncut, he sees the beauty
of the individual and considers this to be art.
From this above discussion, it must be said that, Robert Herrick, a Cavalier poet, very successfully
breaks the traditional concept that delight can only be found in harmony through the poem “delight in
disorder”. Moreover it possesses a high musical quality and the melodious end rhyme. So
considering all these things, it can be regarded as the best example of his poetic intelligence. And it is
also said that in this poem, Robert Herrick admires the beauty of a woman.
Conclusion
In fine, it is seen the poems of three writers belonging love, sex and admiration of woman. I think
these are more worldly witty and wise than most romantic poetry. Most of the writers in English
literature show love, sex, and admiration in their poetry.
Reference
Abrams, M.H. and Norton, N.Y. (1993). The Norton Anthology of English Literature/, Norton &
Company Incorporated, W. W., NY Norton. Retrieve from
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-norton-anthology-of-poetry/7505295/.
Alfred Owen Aldridge (1982). Early American Literature: A Comparators Approach, Princeton
University: Chapter 2, “Edward Taylor and the American Baroque
Donne, John (1896), Poems of John Donne. Vol I. E. K. Chambers, ed London, Lawrence & Bullen,
P. 51-52.
Gardner, Helen (1957). Metaphysical Poets. Oxford University Press, London. Retrieved 2014-08-
15.
Grierson, poem (1921). 138. On the Death of Mr. Crashaw. Abraham Cowley. Metaphysical Lyrics
& Poems of the 17th c.
Sarah Hutton (1994). “Platonism in some Metaphysical Poets”, in Platonism and the English
Imagination, Cambridge University, pp 163-178
White, Helen C. (February 1964). "Southwell: Metaphysical and Baroque", Modern Philology, Vol.
61, No. 3: 159–168.

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