The Anniversary

BY JOHN DONNE

All Kings, and all their favourites, 

         All glory of honours, beauties, wits, 

    The sun itself, which makes times, as they pass, 

    Is elder by a year now than it was 

    When thou and I first one another saw: 

    All other things to their destruction draw, 

         Only our love hath no decay; 

    This no tomorrow hath, nor yesterday, 

    Running it never runs from us away, 

But truly keeps his first, last, everlasting day. 

         Two graves must hide thine and my corse; 

         If one might, death were no divorce. 

    Alas, as well as other Princes, we 

    (Who Prince enough in one another be) 

    Must leave at last in death these eyes and ears, 

    Oft fed with true oaths, and with sweet salt tears; 

         But souls where nothing dwells but love 

    (All other thoughts being inmates) then shall prove 

    This, or a love increasèd there above, 

When bodies to their graves, souls from their graves remove. 

         And then we shall be throughly blessed; 

         But we no more than all the rest. 

    Here upon earth we’re Kings, and none but we 

    Can be such Kings, nor of such subjects be; 

    Who is so safe as we? where none can do 

    Treason to us, except one of us two. 

         True and false fears let us refrain, 

    Let us love nobly, and live, and add again 

    Years and years unto years, till we attain 

To write threescore: this is the second of our reign. 

A year has passed, and “all other things” including royal courts and the very sun itself have grown older by a year, drawing that much closer to their end. In contrast, the one ageless thing is the unchanging love the poet shares with his lover. Although their bodies will be in separate graves when they die, their eternal souls will be reunited along with “all the rest” when they are resurrected. For now, the two are kings in their world of love, secure in their faithfulness, and he hopes that they will be together for 60 anniversaries.

Analysis

In this three-stanza poem, the poet commemorates the first anniversary of seeing his beloved. He begins by using imagery from the political world: the royal court of kings. He juxtaposes this image with the supreme nature image, the sun, to encompass the highest concepts of the whole world (royalty and the life-giving sun)—only to point out that these things are mortal and have come one year closer to death since he first laid eyes on his beloved. He claims the only thing not subject to “decay” (line 7) is the love that he and the object of his affections share. Their passion has “no to-morrow …, nor yesterday” (line 8) and is therefore timeless and beyond the reach of mortality.

It is interesting that this stanza argues for the constancy of their love, rather than a love that grows over time. While it does not decay, it also does not increase; he is satisfied with it. There is no “tomorrow” or “yesterday,” and the “first” and “last” day are kept all the same. Unlike the infidelity poems, in this poem the speaker expects that they both are solid in their mutual love.

In the second stanza, however, Donne acknowledges that while their love is timeless, the lovers’ physical bodies are not so fortunate. One day each of them will die—this death will force them to “leave at last in death these eyes and ears,/Oft fed with true oaths, and with sweet salt tears” (lines 15-16). Thus, their physical bodies—the instruments through which they enjoy their love—will fail them, ending in a kind of “divorce” (line 13). Donne turns this loss around, however, by reminding his beloved that their bodies may be subject to corruption, but not their souls: “When bodies to their graves, souls from their graves remove” (line 20).

As with much metaphysical verse, the focus is on the immaterial and spiritual over the physical and mortal. Unlike many of the other poems considered here, but like Holy Sonnet 10, this poem explicitly refers the audience to the eternal life of the soul. Their love will live on in their souls, and these souls will be reunited after their bodies are moved to their graves.

The final stanza points out that at this point, the lovers will be like “all the rest,” thoroughly blessed in the Afterlife. Thus, they will no longer have a unique and ageless relationship. Yet, while they remain on earth, they are in the special realm of constant love which is available to “none but we.” The stanza returns to the royal court motif, this time placing the lovers squarely in the seat of sovereignty in a kingdom made of their love, subject to no one but each other.

The lovers are subject to the progress but not the depredations of time. He concludes that they should “love nobly, and live, and add again/Years and years unto years” (lines 28-29). (“Nobly” carries both of its meanings here; they should love as the nobility they are, and with noble hearts.) His call to add “years unto years” is his way of embracing the passage of time but in a positive way. He sweetly remarks that they will celebrate one anniversary after another until sixty years have passed—and therefore sixty anniversaries. For now, he and his beloved will begin the second “year” of their reign. Presuming that sixty years is a long enough earthly life, the poet promises a very long reign of love.

John Donne

            John Donne, born in London in 1572 to a prosperous merchant; his mother was a devout Catholic whose family had suffered religious persecution and exile. She was daughter of a famous writer epigrammatist John Heywood. He matriculated from Oxford in 1584, and although he did not receive a degree, the university would later award him an honorary MA. He also trained as a lawyer—his entrance in 1591 to Thavies Inn was followed by admittance to Lincoln’s in 1592—and some critics have remarked upon the traces of legal training evident in the conceits and tight reasoning of his verse. Donne appears to have remained at Lincoln’s until 1596, when he joined the English expedition to Cadiz. On his return to England in 1597, he spent several years in the service of Sir Thomas Egerton, staying with Egerton while he entered Parliament as the Member for Brackley. One of the decisive turning points of his life occurred in December 1601, when he secretly married Ann More, Lady Egerton’s niece. The confession of his marriage to his father-in-law in February 1602 resulted in imprisonment and dismissal from Egerton’s service. His marriage was subsequently to cause Donne so much difficulty that he would write in a letter to his wife in 1602, “John Donne, Ann Donne, Un-done.” Donne was unsuccessful in his application for employment in the Queen’s household, and for secretary ships in Ireland and with the Virginia Company. In 1614, he served as Member of Parliament for Taunton and sat on several select committees; he was, however, still unable to find state employment. In 1615, he took orders in the Church of England, a step which had been urged on him by the Dean of Gloucester eight years before. From this time on, he served in various ecclesiastical functions: as Royal Chaplain, rector and vicar of several parishes, Reader in Divinity at Lincoln’s Inn, and as a Justice in the Court of Delegates. The crowning achievement of his career came in 1621, when he was elected Dean of St. Paul’s. He preached widely, both at Court and abroad, and his sermons were received with acclaim and published in 1622, 1625, and 1626. He was a strong candidate for a bishopric in 1630, but fell seriously ill late that year. He died in 1631 and is buried in St. Paul’s. Although he is best known today for his poems, few of them were published in his lifetime: the First and Second Anniversaries came out in 1612, as did “Break of Day,” and “Elegy upon Prince Henry” was published the following year. The first collected edition of the poetry appeared in 1633.

Immortality of love:
One of the themes of the poem is the immortality of love. Poet after their first anniversary says that their love is immortal and time will not affect them in any way. He says to his beloved that they should be sincere in their love; it is sincerity that will make their love immortal.

Death:
Another theme of the poem is death. Poet says that everything in the world is bound to die. Time will destroy everything. Be it King or beauties, honor or sun all will vanish.

Purity of soul:
Another theme of the poem is purity of soul. Poet lays stress on the nobility and piety and says this will make them immortal.