Love's Growth

Context

• Love's Growth was written by John Donne during the early 17th century, reflecting his ongoing exploration of the nature and dynamics of love.

• The poem delves into the complexities of love, particularly how it evolves and intensifies over time, challenging the idea that love is a static emotion.

  

• Donne's work often combines intellectual rigour with deep personal experience, and this poem exemplifies his metaphysical style, blending scientific and philosophical concepts with the theme of love.

Structure and Form

Form, Meter, and Rhyme

• The poem is composed of two stanzas, each containing ten lines.
• The rhyme scheme follows ABABCCDDDD, creating a pattern that reflects the poem's exploration of change and constancy in love.
• The meter is primarily iambic pentameter, providing a rhythmic regularity that underscores the poem's contemplative tone while allowing for subtle variations that emphasize key ideas.

Speaker and Setting

• The speaker in the poem is a lover who reflects on the nature of love, examining how it grows and changes over time.
• The setting is abstract and intellectual, focusing on the speaker's inner thoughts and emotions rather than a specific physical location. The speaker's contemplative tone invites the reader to consider the evolving nature of love.

Poetic Devices

Conceit:

• Donne employs a metaphysical conceit to compare love's growth to the natural processes of the earth, suggesting that love, like nature, is capable of continual expansion and renewal.
• The speaker asserts, "But if this medicine, love, which cures all sorrow / With more, not only be no quintessence, / But mixed of all stuffs, paining soul or sense," comparing love to a medicinal compound that evolves.

Paradox:

• The poem uses paradox to explore the contradictory nature of love, presenting it as something that both increases and remains constant.
• The speaker observes, "If as in water stirred more circles be / Produced by one, love such additions take," illustrating how love grows more complex and intense, yet remains fundamentally the same.

Imagery:

• Donne uses vivid imagery to describe the physical and emotional effects of love, drawing on natural and scientific elements.
• The speaker reflects, "But if this medicine, love, which cures all sorrow," invoking the image of love as a powerful and evolving force that both heals and intensifies.

Hyperbole:

• The poem contains hyperbolic statements to emphasize the boundless nature of love, suggesting that it grows beyond the limitations of time and space.
• The speaker claims, "But if this medicine, love, which cures all sorrow / With more, not only be no quintessence," highlighting the idea that love transcends ordinary experience.

Key Themes

The Evolution and Growth of Love

• The poem explores the idea that love is not a static emotion but one that evolves and intensifies over time, becoming more profound and complex.
• The speaker notes, "If as in water stirred more circles be / Produced by one, love such additions take," emphasizing how love grows in depth and complexity.

The Paradoxical Nature of Love

• Donne presents love as a paradoxical force that both changes and remains constant, growing stronger while still retaining its original essence.
• The speaker observes, "And makes one little room, an everywhere," capturing the paradox of love's ability to be both expansive and focused.

Love as a Natural and Cosmic Force

• The poem compares love to natural processes, suggesting that it follows the same laws of growth and expansion as the physical world, yet also transcends these limitations.
  • The speaker reflects, "But if this medicine, love, which cures all sorrow," likening love to a natural force that heals and evolves.

Similar Poems

• "The Sun Rising": This poem also explores the power of love, particularly its ability to transcend physical and temporal boundaries, much like Love's Growth.
• "The Ecstasy": This poem, like Love's Growth, examines the union of souls through love, emphasizing the deep, evolving connection that love fosters between individuals.
• "The Good Morrow": Similar to Love's Growth, this poem delves into the theme of love as a transformative and all-encompassing force that evolves.

Line by Line Analysis

Stanza 1

Lines 1-3

I scarce believe my love to be so pure

As I had thought it was,

Because it doth endure

"I scarce believe my love to be so pure / As I had thought it was,"

• The speaker expresses doubt about the purity of his love, suggesting that it may not be as ideal or perfect as he once believed.
• This self-reflection introduces the theme of questioning the nature and depth of love.

"Because it doth endure"

• He reasons that the very fact that his love endures through time and change may indicate its impurity.
• This line implies that true love might be fleeting or unchanging, and endurance could suggest a more pragmatic or imperfect form of love.

Lines 4-6

Vicissitude, and season, as the grass;

Methinks I lied all winter, when I swore

My love was infinite, if spring make' it more.

"Vicissitude, and season, as the grass;"

• The speaker compares his love to grass, which endures through changes ("vicissitude") and seasons, indicating that his love adapts and evolves.
• This comparison highlights the natural, cyclical nature of his love, rather than an unchanging ideal.

"Methinks I lied all winter, when I swore / My love was infinite, if spring make' it more."

• He reflects that if his love grows stronger in the spring, then his winter declaration of infinite love must have been a lie.
• This admission reveals the speaker's awareness of the dynamic and changing nature of love, challenging the notion of love as a static, unchanging force.

Stanza 2

Lines 7-10

But if medicine, love, which cures all sorrow

With more, not only be no quintessence,

But mixed of all stuffs paining soul or sense,

And of the sun his working vigor borrow,

"But if medicine, love, which cures all sorrow / With more,"

• The speaker begins to explore the idea of love as a "medicine" that heals sorrow but does so by adding more love.
• This suggests that love's healing power comes from its abundance, rather than its purity.

"Not only be no quintessence,"

• He questions whether love is not the "quintessence" or the purest form of emotion, as traditionally believed.
• This line implies that love might be more complex and less idealized than often portrayed.

"But mixed of all stuffs paining soul or sense,"

• The speaker describes love as a mixture of elements that can cause both emotional and physical pain.
• This line introduces the theme of love as a complex, multifaceted experience, encompassing both pleasure and pain.

"And of the sun his working vigor borrow,"

• Love is likened to the sun, borrowing its strength and energy, suggesting that love is a powerful, life-sustaining force.
• This metaphor highlights love's dynamic and vital nature, drawing from the sun's ability to bring growth and life.

Lines 11-14

Love's not so pure, and abstract, as they use

To say, which have no mistress but their muse,

But as all else, being elemented too,

Love sometimes would contemplate, sometimes do.

"Love's not so pure, and abstract, as they use / To say, which have no mistress but their muse,"

• The speaker critiques those who idealize love as a pure and abstract concept, particularly poets or thinkers who have no real experience of romantic love.
• This line suggests that such idealizations are disconnected from the complexities of actual relationships.

"But as all else, being elemented too,"

• He argues that love, like everything else, is made up of elements, implying that it is a physical, grounded experience rather than an ethereal ideal.
• This notion challenges the traditional view of love as purely spiritual or intellectual.

"Love sometimes would contemplate, sometimes do."

• The speaker concludes that love is both contemplative and active, capable of deep thought as well as physical action.
• This duality underscores the complexity of love, which cannot be confined to a single definition or experience.

Stanza 3

Lines 15-17

And yet no greater, but more eminent,

Love by the spring is grown;

As, in the firmament,

"And yet no greater, but more eminent, / Love by the spring is grown;"

• The speaker observes that his love has not necessarily increased in size ("no greater") but has become more prominent or noticeable ("more eminent").
• The reference to spring suggests that love, like nature, experiences renewal and becomes more visible and vibrant during this time.

"As, in the firmament,"

• He introduces a comparison between his love and the firmament, or the sky, setting up a metaphor that connects love to the celestial bodies.

Lines 18-20

Stars by the sun are not enlarged, but shown,

Gentle love deeds, as blossoms on a bough,

From love's awakened root do bud out now.

"Stars by the sun are not enlarged, but shown,"

• The speaker compares his love to stars, noting that, like stars in the presence of the sun, his love is not made larger but is instead revealed or highlighted.
• This suggests that love, when in its full expression, becomes more visible and apparent, rather than expanding in magnitude.

"Gentle love deeds, as blossoms on a bough,"

• He likens acts of love to "blossoms on a bough," indicating that these gentle actions naturally emerge from love, much like flowers blooming from a branch.
• This image emphasizes the organic and beautiful nature of love's expression.

"From love's awakened root do bud out now."

• The speaker describes these "love deeds" as emerging from the "awakened root" of love, implying that the foundation of love has been revitalized, leading to new growth.
• This line reinforces the theme of love as a living, growing entity that flourishes with time and care.

Stanza 4

Lines 21-24

If, as water stirred more circles be

Produced by one, love such additions take,

Those, like so many spheres, but one heaven make,

For they are all concentric unto thee;

"If, as water stirred more circles be / Produced by one, love such additions take,"

• The speaker compares love to ripples in water, where a single disturbance produces multiple circles, each one expanding from the centre.
• He suggests that love, like these ripples, grows by accumulating new layers or "additions," expanding outward in influence and depth.

"Those, like so many spheres, but one heaven make,"

• He continues the metaphor by likening these additions of love to concentric spheres, each contributing to the creation of a single "heaven."
• This line suggests that despite love's many facets and expansions, it ultimately forms a unified, harmonious whole.

"For they are all concentric unto thee;"

• The speaker asserts that all these layers of love are centred around his beloved, who is the focal point of his affection.
• This idea reinforces the centrality of the beloved in the speaker's life, with all aspects of his love directed toward and orbiting around her.

Lines 25-28

And though each spring do add to love new heat,

As princes do in time of action get

New taxes, and remit them not in peace,

No winter shall abate the spring's increase.

"And though each spring do add to love new heat,"

• The speaker notes that each spring brings a renewal of passion, adding "new heat" to their love, much like the warming of the earth after winter.
• This line emphasizes the cyclical nature of love, with spring symbolizing a period of intensified emotion.

"As princes do in time of action get / New taxes, and remit them not in peace,"

• He draws a parallel between the accumulation of love's intensity and the way princes collect taxes during times of action, but do not reduce them in times of peace.
• This metaphor suggests that the passion and intensity of love, once heightened, do not diminish even during calmer periods.

"No winter shall abate the spring's increase."

• The speaker concludes that no "winter," or period of coldness or decline, will reduce the growth that love experiences in the spring.
• This final line reinforces the idea of love's enduring strength and ability to continuously renew itself, defying the natural cycles of decay.