Always use the old sense of the word

Presentation of love in the Great Gatsby and John Donne’s poetry

John Donne, a cool guy around in the 16^th and 17^th century wrote a couple of well famous love poems of today. The Sun Rising and The Anniversary are what I’m going to delve into here.

Just a bit about the man himself, Mr. Donne was a real man in my books. He went against all social norms due to true love and the empowering emotion he felt for a certain Anne Moore which lead him to lose everything he had as she turned out to be his employers niece!!!!! And back in those days acts such as this were not acceptable. 

 Mr Donne, looking rather ravishing 

I feel that Donne’s love for Anne lead him to write two very successful poems.

The Sun Rising being one of them. Whilst reading this poem it was evident that there was a lot of exaggeration used, however, the way in which Donne uses it makes the poem what it is as we are able to understand how much he really loves Anne. By creating a conceit within this poem using the sun, Donne enables us to read the poem and follow his feelings of the sun. The first stanza in summary relates to the Sun waking up Donne and his lover and he wishes it would go away and leave them alone. “Busy old fool,” the first line and use of language sets off the idea that the sun is bothering them and its as if Donne is questioning the sun and why they have to be ruled by it. Immediately the reader is hit with a strong whiff of personification. As the poem goes on we see Donne’s representation of love being something special and sacred. Donne is basically stating that everything precious in the world is there with him and no “Indian spice and mine” will come close to how amazing his girl is, baring in mind back in those days Indian spice and metals were very precious. When reading this poem I personally got a sense of challenge as it feels like Donne is questioning the sun and challenging it as he doesn't understand why it behaves the way it does “thy beams so reverend and strong, Why shouldst thou think?”. There is the essence of  hatred as Donne doesn't seem to understand why the sun is as great as it thinks!

The last stanza reinforces the idea of competition as Donne outs the sun in its place “thou, sun, art half as happy as we.” Donne reaches the end of the poem by letting everyone know that the sun isn't half as happy as they are as the sun cant heat the whole world all the time, but they’re lasts all the way round the world unlike the sun and its beams. In conclusion, I would say this first number by Donne is a successful representation of true love. The use of hyperbole and metaphysical-ism makes the poem have a loving but smart and intellectual outlook onto love.  The sun... rising hehehehehehehe 

In the poem the anniversary, again Donne is able to show his idea of love and what it means really well.

The first stanza starts with the idea of eternal love and Donne highlights the idea of their love surpassing nature. I feel that Donne is very successful in getting the message across that their love is endless as he states that their love has ‘no tomorrow hath, nor yesterday.’ Donne is showing the reader that their love will always be there regardless of the time as their love is endless. Another effective technique Donne uses which shows his representation of love from the line “running it never runs from us away.” Here is Donne is creating a dynamic for love and giving it movement which makes this poem different from the Sun Rising. Donne is able to capture the emotions he feels as love takes over and show that their love is timeless and ‘hath no decay.’

The second stanza continues on with the conceit of eternal love as he moves to nature and the fact that even death will not part their love. Donne also introduces another conceit within this part of the poem as he sets the idea of their love being royal but also that their love is so special it surpasses royalty as royalty isn't as great as their love. Again there is a strong use of hyperbole as Donne gets the message across of how important his love actually is. He ends the second stanza with an empowering line in my opinion as he stats that “when bodies to their graves, souls from their graves remove.” Donne concludes the second stanza with the idea that even when they die, their souls will live on. This is something that makes Donne’s presentations of love so powerful as he doesn't confine love to an emotion within the body, he displays it as a feeling and sensation that stays with a persons soul until the end of time.

In the final stanza Donne changes the conceit once again to the idea of love having a ruling power and that “here upon earth” him and his partner are “kings.”  Love elevates them and Donne does a good job at showing how love can take them to places they want to be. For the first time in the poem Donne also refers to the potential dangers of love as he explains ‘treason to us, except on of us two.’ Here Donne is showing that there are no other people of factors that can get in the way of their, and the only dangers to their love are themselves.

Now onto Gatsby. An obvious difference in the presentation of love between Fitzgerald and Donne would be that The Great Gatsby is written in first person, so we are unable to know the true feelings of those in love such as Gatsby and Daisy.

Despite this, Fitzgerald is able to display the theme of love very successfully throughout the novel. Fitzgerald seems to make love something that only fools fall into. Love is expressed in many different ways throughout the book especially with different characters. Gatsby being a main character, I feel he is presented as someone in the novel who longs for the love of one person and effectively never gets it how he wants to. We see that Daisy and Gatsby have history and when they meet again after a longgggg period of time we see the sparks are still there. However, Gatsby seems blinded by Daisy’s love as I feel he is oblivious to the fact that Daisy is married and has her own child despite whether or not she’s happy. Daisy claims to love Gatsby yet when he dies she is no where to be seen. Effectively when we think about it, Gatsby died for Daisy as the love he had for her lead him to take the brunt of running over Myrtle and killing her. I feel Fitzgerald shows an artificial presentation of love within the play as there is not one character that is happy in love. Fitzgerald could also be showing that love didn't exist truly during that day and age.

Tom and Daisy’s relationship may show some kind of affection and loyalty, but we're not entirely sure if it's actually love.  And the same applies with Jordan and Nick as their love only lasts for a short period so was it lust of love? The only clear presentation of love is Gatsby who falls in love with Daisy but we do question whether he is in love with Daisy, or with a dream of Daisy. Using the characters within the novel we can see that Fitzgerald has quite a harsh view on love which raises the question as to whether he is trying to show love that is fake and artificial. There is no real love within the great Gatsby when you think about it long and hard but maybe this is the message Fitzgerald is trying to get through the whole time. 

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 Around the time The Great Gatsby was written, there were big movements happening for the women of the time. As women gained more independence and it was seemed more acceptable to work, Fitzgerald’s attitude to women reflect this in the novel. Also, Fitzgerald is writing this novel not long after the war, so the attitudes to love at the time are very different to how they are now. Love in The Great Gatsby is influenced by attitudes to love after the war which is important as the society in New York after the war would be very different to now.  Donne on the other hand is writing poetry around in the Elizabethan era, however, the fact that he believes in true love lead him to go against the norms of the time as it would have never been socially acceptable for him and Anne Moore to come together the way they did. All in all I feel that Donne's representation of love is more sentimental to him as it comes from his own personal experience but most importantly from his heart.

I get the feeling that in Donne’s poetry he is showing that love has no end. He states several times of love surpassing nature, surpassing time and overcoming death, so the reader clearly gets the message that love isn't restricted to anything, and that it can be anything you want it to be. This is what I personally love about Donne’s poetry, his freedom and ambiguity allows the reader to relate to the feelings he creates in his poem which makes it relate-able and easier to understand although relating it to love nowadays it may seem to be a cynical outlook onto love. Fitzgerald on the other hand I think shows a more realistic approach to what love actually is. I feel he is trying to show his reader that love doesn't always work out and to also highlight that not every love story has a happy ending. 

 Despicable Lea