Aire and angel by john donne

introduction
analysis of title
themes
metaphysical elements
conceits
textual references

1. AIRE AND ANGELS AS A
METAPHYSICAL POEM
Submitted to: Mam Farkhanda Aziz
Submitted By :Group 4
Wajiha Tanvir (BSF1700392)
Jawairia Mehmood (BSF 1700264)
Madiha Tahir (BSF 1700408)
Nida Khan (BSF 1700566)
Haleema Bibi (BSF 1700340)
Nimra Kanwal (BSF 1700649)
Program Name: BS English (Morning) Semester-5
Course Title: 19
th
Century English Novel
Course code: ENGL- 3114
Date of Submission: February 3
rd
, 2020
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, BANK
ROAD CAMPUS, LAHORE

2. 1

Introduction of John Donne:
John Donne was born in January 22, 1572 in the City of London. His father was a prosperous
merchant of Welsh ancestry. Donne’s mother was Elizabeth Heywood, daughter of Heywood. The
family had a strong Roman Catholic tradition. In 1601 he fell passionately and seriously in love
with Ann More and married her secretly. He was imprisoned for the offense of marrying a minor
without guardian’s consent and the girl’s father. On his release he found himself without
employment and his wife without a dowry. His marriage proved to be the great error of his life
from the Worldly point of view. In his mood of despair he yet wrote wittily to his wife: “John
Donne, Ann Donne, Un-Done.” He wrote to please himself and his friends. From 1602 to 1615
Donne struggled to find ways to support himself and his growing family. Donne felt a deep
satisfaction in the exercise of his functions as a churchman, and was conscious in performing his
duties. He was died in March 31, 1631.
Analysis of title:
‘Aire’ stands for female love which is never purified, and, ‘Angels’ stand for male love which is
something very pure and defined creature. The poem “Aire and Angels” shows the love between
something natural and supernatural. The title also shows comparison between Donne’s mistress
and Angels which shows hyperbolic tone. Just like Angel needs an air for fly, the love needs a
body to be loved. Air is lighter and inferior to Angel; similarly female love is inferior to males.
Synopsis of poem:
The poem was written by 16
th
century metaphysical poet, John Donne (1573-1631). It was
published in Donne’s poetry collection, Poems in 1633. The poem is one of many pieces written
by Donne in the field of love, sensual or spiritual. The sonnet is divided in to two stanzas each of
fourteen lines. The speaker of the poem talks about love and the nature of love. He addresses the
sonnet to his beloved. “Air and Angels” is a poem about love. The speaker addresses the poem to
his beloved, pondering the nature of love as a pure emotion in comparison to its embodied form in
a person. He provides an analogy between the shapelessness of the apparition of angels and the
essence of the quality of love. In initially approaching his beloved, he cannot see anything
concrete: “Some lovely glorious nothing I did see.” This nothingness is insufficient for human
beings. However, we must have a physical form in which to contain our love.

3. 2

The speaker then addresses Love (personified), asking that it take physical form in the beloved as
well, “fix itself in thy lip, eye, and brow.” Reflecting on how love is thus manifested, he has to
conclude that manifestation through bodily attributes is too difficult, and he must resign himself
to the immaterial nature of love, comparing it to air: the angel’s face and wings are “of air, not
pure as it.” The love between the two of them will be like the difference between air and purity.
Themes:
Love:
Love is the predominant theme. Love is approached in two different ways in this poem. Initially,
the speaker, whom we can also call the poet-persona, can be seen as having a definitive view of
love. Love according to him, in the first stanza, needs to take a bodily form to be recognized. He
justifies this by comparing it to a soul. The soul needs a body to initiate any kind of action and so
does love. He, however, posits too much emphasis on the physicality of love, and soon he feels
love faltering under the pressure. This realization begins the second stanza.
The love described in the second stanza recalls platonic ideals. In that respect, love is spiritual,
utter real, hence, removed from materiality of the world. It is envisioned as air. To enhance the
purity of this kind of love, the speaker equates the spiritual side of love to angels. By the end of
the poem, the speaker has an epiphany of sorts. He realizes that both sensuality and spirituality is
essential for love to succeed. Too much of either could burden love; to be a mixture of both in
equal parts is what love aspires.
The last three lines:
“Just such disparity
As is ‘twixt air and angels’ purity,
‘Twixt women’s love, and men’s, will ever be” also hearken the duality of love.

4. 3

Here he portray the duality of love. One side of love is absurdly obsessed with the superficial
beauty, while the other concentrates on the platonic and spiritual ideals. To merge these two kinds
is to reconcile to halves of a whole. And his comment about the disparity between man’s love and
woman’s does just that. One gender represents the physical, the other, the spiritual. And when
united completes the picture; balances the society. It is uncertain which love is assigned to which
gender because Donne understands human nature. He knows that human nature is individual and
every person has a unique perspective. He leaves it to us to work out the meaning between the
lines.

Sexuality:
Donne allows a quick tip of the hat to one of the most natural acts of the world. It might be hidden
under the veil of subtlety but there is, nonetheless, a distinct hint to the possibility of recognizing
sex as a natural counterpart to love.
Spirituality:
Another distinct theme. It is a salutation to the immortality of the soul.
Donne says:
“But since my soul, whose child love is,
Takes limbs of flesh, and else could nothing do.”
The soul is then an omniscient being before taking a physical form. The soul always exists, thus,
it is immortal.
Also, comparing his beloved’s face to angels is another gesture towards the spiritual realm.
Form:

5. 4

Aire and angels consists of two stanza; each fourteen lines lengthy. Both stanzas follow the rhyme
scheme: ABBABACDDEEE .
Donne’s concept of Love of Men and Women in Aire and Angels:
This poem is one of the ‘highly intellectualised’ of Donne’s love poems. The title does not suggest
the subject of love. Even so, the poet describes divine love in terms of the flesh. In “Air and Angels’
love is something that transcends the flesh and the human body is merely a vessel for this potent
emotion. Love in this poem is not represented as a feeling that is strictly based on outside or
shallow perceptions of beauty but rather, it is projected onto the object of the affection in a pure
and spiritual sense. Donne’s argument is that love also needs an incarnation in which to manifest
itself just as does the soul otherwise it remains invisible.
“Some lovely glorious nothing I did see.”
Love cannot exist in a vacuum. It must have a concrete expression. Like a ballast is necessary to
steady the movement of a ship, in the same way, something more important than the appreciation
of physical beauty is necessary to steady love. There must be a considerable and objective
expression of love.
In this poem, man’s love may be compared to an angel and women’s love to air. This infers that
man is usually more active than woman in the game of love-making. As it is manifest that there is
harmony in the angel-air relationship, there should be mutuality and response in man-woman
relationship also. The poet discusses the soul-body relationship. Just as the angels manifest
themselves in the air by a voice or light, in the same way love which is something idealistic, must
express itself through some concrete medium. In the beginning he thought love was like a spirit or
an angel, but subsequently he realised that love must be expressed through a medium, namely the
human body. The beloved is the body of the soul of love. Love has now been concretized in the
beloved and as such she has become the cynosure of his eyes. He appreciates the beauty of her
lips, eyes and brow.
In the last stanza, he concludes that love is just what he thought it was from the beginning as an
idea without boundaries, much like air which is formless and supernatural even though we may
try to put it into the terms of flesh and reality.

6. 5

“Aire and Angels” a Metaphysical Poem
Analytical Poetry:
This is a poem of love and has little to do with air and angels. The poet is fed up with the Platonic
idea of love in which love is something holy and spiritual. He is also not happy with the worship
of the beloved and the admiration of her beauty which the Petrarchan poets did. He realizes the
hollowness and hypocrisy of the idealization of love. Love demands something concrete. It must
have a physical base. Love can grow only by mutuality and co-operation.
In some ways, there is actually a conflict and resolution to the poem since the narrator at once
declares in the first section quote, That it assume thy body, I allow/And fix itself in thy lip, eye,
and brow" yet by the end of his thoughts he is left with the resolution that there is no way to fix
the flesh to the formlessness or “shapelessness of flame" which is, in this case, love.
Blend of passion and feelings:
As a poet of love, Donne is metaphysical. Love for him is eternal and not a thing of mere
sensual enjoyment. It is not physical but spiritual. It is not love at first sight. The lover has begun
to make love to his beloved even before he saw his face:
“Twice or thrice I loved thee
Before I knew thy face or name”
In the poem “Aire and Angels”, John Donne tries to explore the nature of love. He says that a
woman’s love should be like the air through which the man’s love which is like angel can
express itself. Speaking of the relevance of body he says that although love itself is abstract yet
it needs a body to express itself and to address the object of love. He cites the example of the
soul which is invisible in itself but gets an identity and animation through the body. Love, he
says, is the child born of the soul. Therefore like the parent (soul) it too must have a body. He
says that his beloved’s love is the sphere in which his love moves and makes its presence felt.
“So thy love may be my love’s spheare;”

7. 6

Use of Conceits:
Donne uses literally devise conceit in his poetry. A conceit is basically a comparison between
two dissimilar things. According to Dr. Johnson, the most heterogeneous (quite different) ideas
are yoked by violence together. He gets the attention of reader by drawing fresh points of
likeness. Element of likeness in the conceit is transformation. In the poem “Aire and Angels”,
Donne makes a fantastic comparison between woman and ship. He says, if a ship is overloaded
it will sink, similarly if a woman over decorates herself, she may lose her honour.
In the poem “Aire and Angels”, following fantastic conceits are used:
⮚ The poet’s previous love with the previous women (the two or three) was just mere a
rehearsal and anticipation of his love for the present beloved. And is the consummation
of the previous loves. This concept presents the present beloved in a bodiless universal.
“Twice or thrice I loved thee
Before I knew thy face or name”

⮚ In the second conceit the poet says that “his” love’s abode is on the various body parts
like lips, eyebrow etc.

“And fixe itself in thy lip, eye, and brow.”

⮚ The poet offers another highly intellectual notion in the conceit form that His love is
overwhelmed by her excessive beauty.

“I saw I had love’s pinnace overfraught;”

⮚ In the last conceit the poet says that as the angels are purer than the air, so man’s love
is purer than the beloved’s love.

“As is ‘twixt airs and angels puritie,

8. 7

Twixt womens love, and mens, will ever bee.”
Rhythm:
The metaphysical poets including John Donne use contemporary language. The poetic words are
avoided. Their rhythm is as intricate as their thought. Elizabethan rhythms met the requirements
of music but rhythms of Donne and his followers emerge from meaning. Aire and Angels is a two
stanza poem that is separated into two sets of fourteen lines. Both stanzas are quite divergent from
one another. These stanzas follow rhyming scheme ABBABACDCDDEEE with no connection
with each other in rhythm.
Imagery and Wit:
John Donne has been called the monarch of wit. He is remarkable as much of his wit as for his
metaphysical elements. In his poetry wit and imagery are correlated to each other. He uses far-
fetched images to create wit. In ‘Aire and Angels’ he uses nautical imagery of light boat traversing
the waters, flattering at times. He compares his own love with a ship and women’s beauty with the
ballast which is loaded in the light ship in order to stable it.
Whilst thus to ballast love I thought,
And so more steddily to have gone,
With wares which would sinke admiration,
I saw I had love’s pinnace overfraught;
Harsh and obscure language:
Henry Peacham demonstrates in The Compleat Gentleman “A sweete verse is that which, like
a dish with a delicate sauce, invites the reader to taste, even against his will; the contrarie is
harshness.”
The harshness of Donne is actually his satire. In Aire and Angels Donne satires women who are
not giving love to their lovers as he considers “un return love is not a love.” Further there is an
obscurity in his language I.e. we cannot understand his meaning at once in-fact it demands
further analytical reading. In this poem the element of obscure language is evident as we don’t
get the impression at first reading.

9. 8

Exhibition of learning:
In Donne poetry there is an exhibition of learning i.e. there is not mere philosophical knowledge
but the new concepts as well.
In his poem “Aire and Angels” he is not considering the philosophical concepts of love only,
he also considers the concept of people of his age which associates a man with an angel and
women with an aire, he exhibits the new ideas of his age. Further his demand that love is
accomplished with the physical of lovers is also his concept which is different from
philosophical one.
Conclusion:

The poem “Aire and Angels” is a perfect example of metaphysical poetry. In metaphysical
poetry there is no appearance but it is beyond the physical appearance. Donne’s concept that he
has found his beloved in many other bodies before they actually met is signifying that his love
has no boundary to person’s body but their love exists between souls. Further he is using far-
fetched conceits, metaphors, lyrical writing in this poem, which are all characteristics of
Metaphysical poetry.








References:

1. https://neoenglish.wordpress.com/2010/11/07/air-and-angels-by-john-donne/

10. 9

2. https://crossref-it.info/textguide/metaphysical-poets-selected-poems/4/214
3. https://www.articlemyriad.com/analytical-essay-poem-air-angels/
4. Donne,J. Love and Divine Poems. Latest edition. New Kitab Mahal publishers, Lahore.