Air and Angels

Gideon

Elina

1. Air and Angels by John Donne
2. Persecuted for being born a catholic, John Donne converted to the Church of England, only to become a minister in his later years. Donne’s life contained many ups and downs, which his works reflect. Donne had a long and prosperous marriage; the father of 12 children, he wrote many different poems on the topic of love.

3. Some lovely glorious nothing did I see. – He couldn’t see the spiritual beauty, “true love”, that a woman could.

But since my soul, whose child love is, - Due to the less holy state of his soul, he experiences love physically.

Takes limbs of flesh, and else could nothing do, - The only way that he could experience love was through the body.

So thy love may be my love's sphere – So that his sphere could be within her sphere. In some way her sphere transcends his sphere.

As is 'twixt air's and angels' purity, 'Twixt women's love, and men's, will ever be. – Similar to the difference between Angels and Air, although men’s love is great, women’s love is more spiritual and a “better” love than men’s.

4. - How is the difference between air and angels comparable to the difference between men and women’s love?

- What is the speaker’s attitude toward the difference between men and women’s love?

- Why is the speaker able to love only in a physical sense?

- How does this poem compare to some of Donne’s other works? Do you think that the poem is similar to other contemporary English poems?

- What do the first two lines mean?

5. The speaker begins the poem by addressing a woman that he is in love with. He states that he loved her before he knew her physically. The speaker begins to talk about the way he loves. Unable to love in a spiritual sense, he states that he is nothing without his body; the only way he can experience love is through physicality. Throughout the first half of the poem the speaker talks about love in terms of humans. He then explores what love means in terms of ballasts, pinnaces, and boats. Finally he reaches what is to be the main point of the poem when talking about spiritual love. First talking about the different spheres of love, the speaker then compares the difference between air and angels to the difference between men and women’s love. While air is pure in a physical sense, angels have a spirituality that transcends the purity of air. Similarly, while men can love in a physical sense, women can love in a spiritual way that transcends physical love. The poem examines the difference in the way people love, making it clear that women are able to love spiritually while men cannot.