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Elegy XIX: to his Mistress Going to Bed
Come, Madam, come, all rest my powers defy,
Until I labour, I in labour lie
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Off with that girdle, like heaven’s zone glistening
But a far fairer world encompassing
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Off with that happy busk, whom I envy
That still can be, and still can stand so nigh
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Off with your wiry coronet and show
The hairy diadem which on you doth grow
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In such white robes heaven’s angels used to be
Received by men; thou Angel bring’st with thee
A heaven like Mahomet’s paradise; and though
Ill spirits walk in white, we easily know
By this these Angels from an evil sprite:
They set out hairs, but these the flesh upright
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Oh my America, my newfound land,
My kingdom, safeliest when with one man manned,
My mine of precious stones, my Empery,
How blessed am I in this discovering thee
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Full nakedness, all joys are due to thee,
As souls unbodied, bodies unclothed must be
To taste whole joys
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Like pictures, or like books’ gay coverings made
For laymen, are all women thus arrayed;
Themselves are mystic books, which only we
Whom this imputed grace will dignify
Must see revealed
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Here is no penance, much less innocence
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Title: an ‘elegy’ in modern terms is a poem of loss and grief, but may have had a different
meaning in Donne’s time
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Analysis
“Come, madam, come, all rest my powers defy,
Until I labour, I in labour lie
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Donne also presents a paradox, typical of the
metaphysical in the second line
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This is further seen in ‘all rest my powers defy’- he is almost giving all his power to her
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’
There is chiasmus and repetition of ‘foe’
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‘Tired with standing’ presents another innuendo- the waiting and tension makes him
tired, while the pun here shows his erection
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”
This shows the first of many commands
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There is a tone of awe created- her body is a ‘far fairer world’
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This shows her high social status, while also creating astronomical imagery for
the reader
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”
The pattern of his commands shows his persistence
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The ‘breast-plate’ creates more military imagery of the classical soldier
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The command to ‘unlace’ is a reference to corsets which all women wore
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The reference to her ‘bedtime’ also presents an element of infantilism
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”
The ‘busk’ is a part of the corset- he is jealous of how close it is to her
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The corset does
not lose its shape, which we could link back to ‘is tired with standing’
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”

He is valuing her beauty with typical pastoral imagery of the countryside, a technique typical
of love poetry at the time
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”
The ‘coronet’ and ‘diadem’ are both types of crowns
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“Off with those shoes: and then safely tread
In this love’s hallowed temple, this soft bed
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“In such white robes heaven’s angels used to be
Received by men; thou Angel bring’st with thee
A heaven like Mahomet’s paradise…”
There is a tonal shift here, as Donne is now admiring the woman as a sacred figure
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‘Heaven’s angels’ create
more religious imagery
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This knowledge of Islam may
have come from the fact that Spain expelled all Jews and Muslims in 1592- many went as
refugees to London
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”
‘Ill spirits’ creates ghostly imagery for the reader
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“Licence my roving hands and let them go,
Behind, before, above, between, below
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He is listing the
places he wants his hands to go
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”
American was discovered in 1492
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This passage is an extended metaphor
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At the time, the king or queen was next to God, and was God’s
representative on earth, which leads to why Elizabethans were terrified of usurpation
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The reference to ‘one man manned’ shows that
he believes that he is the only person she should be with and that she is safest with them
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He uses a
list of possessives, further showing the sense of ownership
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‘Blessed’ presents further religious imagery
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”
‘Bonds’ creates imagery of slavery, showing that he is a slave to her, and this creates a
paradox
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The ‘seal’ was a stamp for
important documents, which gave authority to the document
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The ‘seal’ may also be a reference to the fact that seals were branded like
cattle, showing that she may also be a slave to him
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‘Souls unbodied’ shows the freedom of death, and
presents the repetition of freedom in the poem
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‘As souls unbodied’ presents a simile- the body must leave the clothes in
order to be free
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”
The reference to Atlanta’s balls is the story of Atlanta, in which she would marry whoever
beat her in a race
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She was a virgin queen in myth
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The ‘gem’ may be referring back to the ‘spangled
breast-plate’, as he has become distracted by the jewels
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The ‘laymen’
are ordinary men, unordained members of the church- he again sets himself above them
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“Themselves are mystic books, which only we
When in their imputed grace will dignify
Must see revealed…”
He compares women to mysticism, a strand of religious practice which refers to secret
knowledge, such as Kabala, a Jewish book which was a body of knowledge only certain rabbis
were allowed to study
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Fundamentalist Protestants would have been against mysticism
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The ‘imputed grace’ discussed shows that she has to grant him
permission to her body
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“…Then since I may know,
As liberally as to a midwife show
Thyself; cast all, yea this white linen hence
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”
A woman would have been totally naked in childbirth at the time
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“To teach thee, I am naked first: why then
What need’st thou have more covering than a man
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There may be more midwifery
imagery created here, as the ‘covering’ may be in reference to the ‘covering’ of a mare for her
to have a foal

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