A Deconstructive Analysis of John Donne's Poem The Canonization

 

                        The Canonization

 

For God’s sake hold your tongue, and let me love,

         Or chide my palsy, or my gout,

My five gray hairs, or ruined fortune flout,

         With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve,

                Take you a course, get you a place,

                Observe his honor, or his grace,

Or the king's real, or his stampèd face

         Contemplate; what you will, approve,

         So you will let me love.

 

Alas, alas, who’s injured by my love?

         What merchant’s ships have my sighs drowned?

Who says my tears have overflowed his ground?

         When did my colds a forward spring remove?

                When did the heats which my veins fill

                Add one more to the plaguy bill?

Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still

         Litigious men, which quarrels move,

         Though she and I do love.

 

Call us what you will, we are made such by love;

         Call her one, me another fly,

We're tapers too, and at our own cost die,

         And we in us find the eagle and the dove.

                The phoenix riddle hath more wit

                By us; we two being one, are it.

So, to one neutral thing both sexes fit.

         We die and rise the same, and prove

         Mysterious by this love.

 

We can die by it, if not live by love,

         And if unfit for tombs and hearse

Our legend be, it will be fit for verse;

         And if no piece of chronicle we prove,

                We’ll build in sonnets pretty rooms;

                As well a well-wrought urn becomes

The greatest ashes, as half-acre tombs,

         And by these hymns, all shall approve

         Us canonized for Love.

 

And thus invoke us: “You, whom reverend love

         Made one another’s hermitage;

You, to whom love was peace, that now is rage;

         Who did the whole world's soul contract, and drove

                Into the glasses of your eyes

                (So made such mirrors, and such spies,

That they did all to you epitomize)

         Countries, towns, courts: beg from above

         A pattern of your love!”

 

The Canonization is a classic piece of metaphysical poetry, revolves around the themes of platonic love and spirituality. Through the poem John Donne remarkably dismantle all the notions of a lover. He presents a lover who is in old age and suffers all the concerns of the age. He also attempts to give a new view point towards the notion of Canonization. It is the process of ascending into the list of sainthood, considering their sacrifice and contribution towards the society. Here, the poet generalises the religious notion and subverts it into the new aspects.

This poem can be well analysed through the perspective of deconstruction. The title and the theme of the poem itself suggest the inherent contradictions. There are clear cut word play happening in the poem, exposes the fluidity of meaning within the text. Hence it challenges all the fixed interpretations and invites reader’s new version of thinking for the new possibilities of meaning.

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Hints

The title and theme of the poem

First stanza – New Kind of Lover and love

Interpretation of the metaphysical conceits

Fly, Candles, Phoenix etc.  

 

Deconstruction emphasizes the undecidability of meaning, and this concept is particularly evident in the paradoxical nature of love presented in the poem. While the speaker passionately defends and celebrates love, there is an acknowledgment that such love may be met with mockery and criticism. Still he gathers strength and celebrates it.

Derrida's concept of "trace" is relevant in understanding how the poem leaves residual marks that contribute to its complexity. The repeated use of the term "canonize" suggests an attempt to elevate love to a sacred status, but the very act of canonization becomes a trace that points to the inherent tensions within the poem.

Deconstruction encourages an exploration of the broader context in which a text is situated. In the case of "The Canonization," considering Donne's broader body of work and the cultural context of the Renaissance adds layers of meaning. Deconstructive analysis invites readers to question how the poem engages with and challenges prevailing cultural norms and literary conventions related to love, spirituality, and poetic expression.

Deconstruction challenges logocentrism, the privileging of one term over another, often favoring reason over passion. "The Canonization" resists a straightforward hierarchy between spiritual and earthly matters. The poem invites readers to question any fixed logocentric tendencies and embrace a more nuanced understanding of the interplay between reason and passion.

Deconstruction in fact, resists the temptation to provide a conclusive meaning, highlighting the endless play of differences within the text. Donne's language becomes a dynamic and demands for innovation in interpretation.