Woman's Constancy
- Created by: eleanorfarnold
- Created on: 04-04-15 12:18
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- Woman's Constancy
- Now thou hast loved me one whole day,/ Tomorrow when thou leav'st me what wilt thou say?
- starts with a question - lack of surety
- however appears sure woman will leave
- starts with a trochee rhythm already disturbed
- couplet gives a false sense of security
- starts with a question - lack of surety
- Wilt thou then antedate some new-made vow?
- legal language - going back on promises
- visual ident following - inconstancy of line length - visual inconstancy
- Or say that now
- We are not those persons which we were?
- Woman's Constancy
- Now thou hast loved me one whole day,/ Tomorrow when thou leav'st me what wilt thou say?
- starts with a question - lack of surety
- however appears sure woman will leave
- starts with a trochee rhythm already disturbed
- couplet gives a false sense of security
- starts with a question - lack of surety
- Wilt thou then antedate some new-made vow?
- legal language - going back on promises
- visual ident following - inconstancy of line length - visual inconstancy
- Or say that now
- We are not those persons which we were?
- We are not those persons which we were?
- Or say that now
- oaths made in reverential fear/ Of Love, and his wrath, any may foreswear?
- oath made under duress doesn't count
- castoff, shirking of responsibility - the passing of blame, he's is predicting her turn around on him
- love personified
- oath made under duress doesn't count
- Or, as true deaths, true marriages untie/ So lovers' contracts, images of those,/ Bind but till sleep, death's image, them unloose?
- his imagery reflects an image or an idea. each one becomes less sincere, each image is belittled by him stating it
- His questioning becomes increasingly petulant and demanding
- Or, your own end to justify,/ For having purposed change and falsehood, you/ Can have no way but falsehood to be true?
- in reality is a statement, his questioning appears almost pointless showing his anger and certainty in this prediction
- falsehood is all you know
- The questions end at this point? How come, is it because the simplicity of her false nature is all he needs? He has completely destroyed her image.
- critics and context
- Coleridge said should be called mutual inconstancy
- the problem of woman's constancy was a typical petrarchan struggle
- Silvia Ruffo Fiore: Donne's cycnism is not original: "he varies or redefines them in the context of personal experience"
- Vain lunatic, against these 'scapes I could/ Dispute, and conquer, if I would
- Donne cannot let the woman be triumphant - poem again reverts to his own conditional supremacy.
- Lunatic refers to moon and it symbol of inconstancy
- For by tomorrow, I may think so too.
- Donne ends with a sort of symmetry but also a high level of irony. He is better because his constancy lasts one day longer...
- rhyme, rhythm and punctuation
- starts and ends with a conclusive statement. creating a symmetry in inconstancy. Arguably the 3 line length of the last phrase could be a pictorial representation of his comparative longevity.
- rhyme is inconsistant. AABB CCC DEED FFGGHH
- poem consists largely of questions (6) and these grow in line length (1,1,2,2,3,3) he works towards his 4 line conclusion
- rhythm is inconsitant trhoughout. for example starts on a trochee
- Now thou hast loved me one whole day,/ Tomorrow when thou leav'st me what wilt thou say?
- Woman's Constancy
- We are not those persons which we were?
- Or say that now
- oaths made in reverential fear/ Of Love, and his wrath, any may foreswear?
- oath made under duress doesn't count
- castoff, shirking of responsibility - the passing of blame, he's is predicting her turn around on him
- love personified
- oath made under duress doesn't count
- Or, as true deaths, true marriages untie/ So lovers' contracts, images of those,/ Bind but till sleep, death's image, them unloose?
- his imagery reflects an image or an idea. each one becomes less sincere, each image is belittled by him stating it
- His questioning becomes increasingly petulant and demanding
- Or, your own end to justify,/ For having purposed change and falsehood, you/ Can have no way but falsehood to be true?
- in reality is a statement, his questioning appears almost pointless showing his anger and certainty in this prediction
- falsehood is all you know
- The questions end at this point? How come, is it because the simplicity of her false nature is all he needs? He has completely destroyed her image.
- critics and context
- Coleridge said should be called mutual inconstancy
- the problem of woman's constancy was a typical petrarchan struggle
- Silvia Ruffo Fiore: Donne's cycnism is not original: "he varies or redefines them in the context of personal experience"
- Vain lunatic, against these 'scapes I could/ Dispute, and conquer, if I would
- Donne cannot let the woman be triumphant - poem again reverts to his own conditional supremacy.
- Lunatic refers to moon and it symbol of inconstancy
- For by tomorrow, I may think so too.
- Donne ends with a sort of symmetry but also a high level of irony. He is better because his constancy lasts one day longer...
- rhyme, rhythm and punctuation
- starts and ends with a conclusive statement. creating a symmetry in inconstancy. Arguably the 3 line length of the last phrase could be a pictorial representation of his comparative longevity.
- rhyme is inconsistant. AABB CCC DEED FFGGHH
- poem consists largely of questions (6) and these grow in line length (1,1,2,2,3,3) he works towards his 4 line conclusion
- rhythm is inconsitant trhoughout. for example starts on a trochee
- Now thou hast loved me one whole day,/ Tomorrow when thou leav'st me what wilt thou say?
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