Critical Analysis of "The Indifferent" by John Donne "The Indifferent" by John Donne is a relatively simple love poem in comparison

to his other, more complicated works. In this poem, "he presents a lover who regards constancy as a 'vice' and promiscuity as the path of virtue and good sense" (Hunt 3). Because of Donne's Christian background, this poem was obviously meant to be a comical look at values that were opposite the ones held by Christians. According to Clay Hunt, "['The Indifferent'] is probably quite an early poem because of the simplicity and obviousness of its literary methods, its untroubled gaiety, and its pose of libertinism, which all suggest that Donne wrote [the poem] when he was a young man about town in Elizabethan London" (1-2). The poem "mocks the Petrarchan doctrine of eternal faithfulness, putting in its place the anti-morality which argues that constancy is a 'heresy' and that 'Love's sweetest part' is 'variety'" (Cruttwell 153). The first two stanzas of the poem seem to be the speaker talking to an audience of people, w hile the last one looks back and refers to the first two stanzas as a "song." The audience to which this poem was intended is very important because it can drastically change the meaning of the poem, and has therefore been debated among the critics. While most critics believe that the audience changes from men, to women, then to a single woman, or something along those lines, Gregory Machacek believes that the a Donne describes in The Indifferent a love which inspires cynicism. This love has betrayed him, so he attacks back with a spiteful poem which attacks the base upon which love stands: constancy. He aims to destroy love itself by writing a poem about a world in which Venus herself despises fidelity. The Indifferent has a very humorous tone; this is clear both from the rhythm of the poem and the heights of ridiculous he goes to in his attack on constancy. He sets the reader up for a humorous poem in the second stanza, where he describes an obese woman as "her whom abundance melts." This lightheartedness of The Indifferent might cause one to believe that Donne wrote the poem merely in jest, but that would be a mistake; there is a whole genre of books called satire which make their points through humor - it is very likely the author uses humor as a coping mechanism to allow himself to express his feelings while not causing himself to be exposed to the full power of his pain. This poem tells the story of a man who has become skeptical about constancy - and love in general - through repeated dealings with false people; perhaps this man is even John Donne himself. Wordsworth described poetry as "the spontaneous outpouring of emotion"; how could John Donne write about something he had never experienced? Donne has written volumes of poetry on the subject of fidelity Women's Constancy, Break of Day, Love's Usury; The Broken Heart perhaps describes on of these betrayals.

Donne's speech throughout the poem is very ironical, and this is where most of the humor of the piece comes from. In the last line of the first stanza, he states: "I can love any, so she be not true" - the absurdity of this line needs no explaining. In the next stanza he calls constancy a "vice", and declares: "Rob me, but bind me not, and let me go. Must I, who came to travail thorough you, Grow your fixed subject, because you are true?" The author made some interesting choices in the words "rob" and "travail." It is a great joke that he paints himself as a glutton for punishment who sees love as a chore; a necessary pain. Later, his tone becomes so absurd as to be almost heretical. "She (Venus) heard not this till now; and that it should be so no more...some two or three Poor heretics in love there be." Constancy is such a ridiculous idea that Venus hadn't even heard of it till now; it sounds like moral outrage, one can imagine Venus's shocked face. The choice of the word "heretics" is likewise ironical - constancy is a religious virtue, to call one who is true a heretic is an absurd reversal. Tone wise, The Indifferent is multi layered. Beneath the humor, beneath the cynicism and skepticism, there is a touch of tragedy. The last line of the poem: "Since you will be true, you shall be true to them who are false to you" - a very sad note to end a humorous poem on. The "you" in this line is the speaker of the poem, perhaps even Donne himself - he has stated in Love's Deity, "I must love her that loves not me." There is also a touch of tragedy in the line: "Or doth a fear, that men are true, torment you? Oh we are not, be you not so" The speaker ultimately decides he can not expect constancy in a woman because he is not true himself; one might even say he blames himself for being betrayed. We see this thought again in Woman's Constancy: "Vain lunatic, against these `scapes (excuses for not being true) I could Dispute, and conquer, if I would, Which I abstain to do, For by tomorrow, I may think so too." In John Donne's poem Sweetest Love, I do not go, the tone swings in the other direction. The tone is far more serious in this poem, the last four lines, "But think that we Are but turned aside to sleep; They who one another keep Alive, ne'er parted be" could be called mawkish. There is no trace of the skepticism seen in The Indifferent - we are presented with the first paradox of love, which inspires skepticism in The Indifferent, but now causes the author to form a love so powerful the distance he must now travel away from his love almost splits him in two when he considers the grief his absence will cause her. The ideas expressed in this poem are much more like a traditional love poem, barring the fact that there is practically no imagery - such was Donne's way. The first line seems almost to contradict statements made by him in more skeptical poems, for he proclaims boldly, "Sweetest Love, I do not go for weariness of thee, Nor in hope the world can show A fitter love for me", as compared to the more cautious, "If our two loves be one, or, thou and I Love so alike that none do slacken" in The Good-Morrow. Next in line five he states "But since that I Must die at last, `tis best to use myself in jest, and Thus by feigned deaths to die." He does not "travail" but rather this love is an addiction that he can't quit cold turkey; he has to see less and less of his loved one in order to endure the final separation. In the second stanza he states that he is more faithful than the sun; his hyperbole betrays a great wealth of feeling; since the sun is our measurement of time, he is saying he is more

faithful than time itself - time being the only thing men can be sure of (ie: "Death and Taxes"). The fourth stanza is a really interesting point of comparison. "It cannot be that thou lov'st me, as thou say'st, If in thine my life thou waste", he states, which sounds a bit more like the actions of a "Usurious God of Love"; here is indeed a man who could state that he has grown "your fixed subject, because you are true." Once again the author presents us with a situation where Love is a commanding master. Yet the next line states, "Thou art the best of me." So rather he enjoys this painful, commanding love. This is the paradox of love: it can give pain that drives one man a way while draws another closer; in this case it is the same m