by a_hnau » September 9th, 2008, 9:19 pm
The Donne is fascinating, I'd not read the whole before but it seems full of allusions in the context of Lewis's novel; you could potentially tie it to the themes of the novel phrase by phrase or significant word. Particularly the theme of the various heavens is of course explicit in the Trilogy. Some suggestions as to how the poem ties up to THS;
- 'centric' (l. 2); in the medieval model paradoxically God, who is on the 'outside' of the spheres, is their real centre - I think Lewis makes this reversal explicit in The Discarded Image. So God is at the centre of love, and Mark and Jane only achieve love as it's supposed to be when they are brought to a point of centring on him at the end of THS.
- the play (I think) on 'get' as [be]get; if one loves, one generally begets; the alchemist's pot is 'pregnant' but it does not beget, he does not get (obtain), the elixir of life (along with the philosopher's stone, the two main aims of alchemy). Of course Jane is not planning to 'beget', 'not for a very long time', and her marriage to Mark does not seem to 'beget' the life she was expecting.
- love is 'imposture' and (pessimistic this) what lovers dream, like what the alchemist dreams, is impossible and they settle for second best, some 'odoriferous thing'. Certainly Jane is considering lowering her expectations, but crucially at the end of the book rediscovers them - in Maleldil, the dreams are not vain.
- [the mind which] 'he in her angelic finds' - this certainly echoes Mark's reflections on Jane towards the end of the book.
- 'the spheres' of course, as experienced as St Anne's, contrasted with 'rude hoarse minstrelsy' - the coarse banter at Belbury.
Probably there's much more in there, I know little about Donne.
Urendi Maleldil