The world of John Donne is the world of love, not limited by the single variety of feeling and unchanging picture of love. When we talk about the love poetry of John Donne, we recall his poems from Songs and Sonnets, full of emotions and attitudes. What makes Donne’s poems a masterpiece? Probably, the secret is in his personal autobiographical picture in each and every line and poem. The author is experimenting with his own feelings and emotions through his poetry and brings it up for the reader’s judgement. He does not look for agreement or critics. Donne is more in search for new angles of these feelings that could be brought to him by his reader.
The poet is trying to make his poems live and accessible to us, by creating tangible and intangible values and incorporating them in different shapes in the poems. Reading through Songs and Sonnets, we are able to see the transformation of love from purely material feeling towards the woman, mainly based on sexual interest, to highly emotional dedication of self to an “Angel”, the woman that becomes a reason for living.
The author is taking us through his own journey of self-analysis and evolution and drives us to his major idea and belief that in love body and soul are not distinct and cannot exist other than in parallel with each other. Only the love that comprised from body and soul can bring satisfaction and show a human being the highest form of love. Anyone who starts reading John Donne and his love poetry will dive into the world of new and unexpected ways and angles of the feeling we call love.