Donne: The Funeral

[Marius Hancu]

Hello:

I've no idea what Donne means by:
"As 'twas humility
To afford to it all that a Soul can do,"
in the last stanza.

------
The Funeral
John Donne

Whoever comes to shroud me, do not harm
Nor question much
That subtle wreath of hair which crowns my arm;
The mystery, the sign, you must not touch,
For 'tis my outward Soul,
Viceroy to that which then to heaven being gone
Will leave this to control
And keep these limbs, her Provinces, from dissolution.

For if the sinewy thread my brain lets fall
Through every part
Can tie those parts, and make me one of all,
These hairs, which upward grew, and strength and art
Have from a better brain,
Can better do't; except she meant that I
By this should know my pain,
As prisoners then are manacled when they're condemned to die.

Whate'er she meant by 't, bury it with me,
For since I am
Love's martyr, it might breed idolatry
If into others' hands these relics came;
As 'twas humility
To afford to it all that a Soul can do,
So 'tis some bravery
That since you would save none of me, I bury some of you.

http://plagiarist.com/poetry/7680/
(p. 107)
----------

Thanks.
Marius Hancu

[James Hogg]

On Sun, 17 May 2009 00:56:27 -0700 (PDT), Marius Hancu

Post by Marius Hancu
"As 'twas humility
To afford to it all that a Soul can do,"
in the last stanza.

Something like:
Just as he acted humbly by granting this relic (the lock of hair)
everything that his soul (or any soul) could grant it, he is
acting bravely by insisting that it be buried with him.

Incidentally, I was Googling for this poem and found a wonderful
quote at Homework Assistance:

"This poem is weird but he had to of wrote it for a reason. The
guy said that he wanted to be buried with a lock of the woman's
hair for revenage not for love this is a better reason that love
because it would help him to never forget what she had done to
him. this would help him come back in another life adn get
revenge on her so I thought that this poem was pretty good."

Literary criticism at it's best!

[John Holmes]

Post by James Hogg
Incidentally, I was Googling for this poem and found a wonderful
"This poem is weird but he had to of wrote it for a reason. The
guy said that he wanted to be buried with a lock of the woman's
hair for revenage not for love this is a better reason that love
because it would help him to never forget what she had done to
him. this would help him come back in another life adn get
revenge on her so I thought that this poem was pretty good."
Literary criticism at it's best!

It's very clever. No teacher would ever suspect that had been
plagiarised.

[CDB]

Post by Marius Hancu
"As 'twas humility
To afford to it all that a Soul can do,"
in the last stanza.

I don't disagree with James's interpretation. For what it's worth
though, I connected "to afford [(allow to)] it all that a soul can do"
with the description of the wreath as his outward soul, which would
act to keep his body (these limbs) from dissolution when his own soul
has gone. As it would be humility in Donne to grant, or maybe to
attribute, to this armband all the powers of a soul, so it is bravery
(bravado?) in him to bury it with his body. I think humility and
bravery (especially in the rejection of idolatry) are presented as two
characteristics of the martyr that he claims to be.

There's a lot that could be said about religious aspects of this poem,
as it plays with contemporary religious ideas: the martyrs were
probably of the more recent Protestant kind; "idolatry" is a reference
to Catholicism; the first stanza plays with the distinction between
incidents and accidents; and I wonder if the wreath itself is an
allusion to the cilice. No doubt sb has written a book about it.

There's a somewhat uncommon use (to modern ears) of "except" in the
second stanza, to mean "unless": the next stanza shows that he wasn't
definitely attributing that cruel intention to her.

Post by Marius Hancu
------
The Funeral
John Donne
Whoever comes to shroud me, do not harm
Nor question much
That subtle wreath of hair which crowns my arm;
The mystery, the sign, you must not touch,
For 'tis my outward Soul,
Viceroy to that which then to heaven being gone
Will leave this to control
And keep these limbs, her Provinces, from dissolution.
For if the sinewy thread my brain lets fall
Through every part
Can tie those parts, and make me one of all,
These hairs, which upward grew, and strength and art
Have from a better brain,
Can better do't; except she meant that I
By this should know my pain,
As prisoners then are manacled when they're condemned to die.
Whate'er she meant by 't, bury it with me,
For since I am
Love's martyr, it might breed idolatry
If into others' hands these relics came;
As 'twas humility
To afford to it all that a Soul can do,
So 'tis some bravery
That since you would save none of me, I bury some of you.
http://plagiarist.com/poetry/7680/
(p. 107)
----------
Thanks.
Marius Hancu

[M***@gmail.com]

Post by CDB
As it would be humility in Donne to grant, or maybe to
attribute, to this armband all the powers of a soul

This makes sense.

Thank you both.
Marius Hancu