68 The Poetry of Physics and The Physics of Poetry
In his poem A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, he uses the
compass as a simile referring to the souls of his wife and himself;
If they be two, they are two so
As stiffe twin compasses are two
Thy soul the fix’t foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the other does.
And though it in the center sits
Yet when the other far doth roam
it leaves, and hearkens after it
And grows erect, as that comes home.
Such wilt thou be to me, who must
Like its other fool, obliquely runne;
Thy fermnes draws my circle past
And makes me end, where I begin.In his poem Love’s Alchymie, he compares the hopes of two lovers’
with those of an alchemist’s. With regard to the issue of the heliocentric
versus geocentric universe his poetry clearly indicates his acceptance of
the heliocentric view albeit in the form of Tycho Brahe’s compromise
system. In spite of his acquaintance and acceptance of scientific ideas
Donne’s poetry still retains a skeptical attitude with regard to the value of
scientific knowledge. For him the most important knowledge is that of
God. He would argue that scientific ideas will come and go but a belief
in God will endure. This attitude is reflected in the following passage of
the Second Anniversary;
Why grass is green, or why our blood is red
Are mysteries which none have reach’d into.
In this low form, pour soul, what will thou do?
When wilt thou shake off this pedantery
Of being taught by sense and fantasy?
Thou look’st through spectacles, small things seem great
Below, but up onto the watchtower get
And see all things despoil’d of fallacies
Thou shalt not peep through lattices of eyes,
Nor hear through labyrinths of ears, nor learn
By circuit or collection to discern.
In heaven thou straight know’st all concerning it.
And what concerns it not, shalt straight forget.