In his essay "A Defense of A Woman's Inconstancy", John Donne wrote of the female race that "for all their brotherhood they will never be tamed, nor commanded by us." His affinity for the grace and beauty of women is evident in his many works. Yet Donne establishes a paradox in his own poetry that sparks controversy over his view of women in general. Achsah Guibbory, in her article "The Politics of Love in Donne's Elegies", argues that "we may not want to admit the presence of misogyny in one of the greatest love poets in the English language, but we must come to terms with it." " (813). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Although widely known for his witty and intellectual love poetry, At First Sight John Donne he is not typically seen as a misogynist, but rather as a craftsman of words and metaphors, providing "a surprising variety of attitudes, views and feelings" (Logan, 1235). Written in the seventeenth century, Donne's poem "Elegy 19 ", later titled "To His Mistress Going to Bed", is a sexual allegory illustrating the male perspective of intercourse. However, this descriptive and whimsical elegy provides a clear objectification of women, both through the use of Women of possessive words and phrases in his images, both through the character of his lover within the poem With the use of possessive grammar and images of women as property, Donne establishes a misogynistic tone in "Elegy 19", in particular. in the second stanza. The speaker claims possession of his lover using meticulous pronouns: Give license to my wandering hands and let them go Front, behind, between, above, below. O my America! my rediscovered land, my kingdom, safer when with only one man, my mine of precious stones, my empire (25-29). Here, the narrator's use of "mine" and "mine" alludes to his lover's ownership, and "the repeated possessives reinforce the sense of his mastery" over the woman who slowly undresses before him (Guibbory 822). Much like the controlling syntax of the second stanza, Donne's descriptive allegory of the woman in "Elegy 19" establishes power and authority. held by the speaker in relation to his lover. Woman is "consciously idealized and commodified through a variety of astonishing concepts that aim to conquer her" (Guibbory 821). Donne symbolizes the lover in the second stanza, line 27, as "O my America! My newfound land", implying that the lover is nothing more than a mere possession that the speaker must discover and take as his own. His only desire in the sonnet is to “possess and thereby dominate the colonized woman” (Guibbory 822). According to Germaine Greer, “Catherine Ginelli Martin identifies the speaker's purpose in this poem as…to objectify, shame, and figuratively rape her 'newfound land'” (218). Line 28 refers to the lover as "My kingdom, safest when with only one man garrisoned", also signifying her objectification by the narrator, as she is portrayed as a conquered kingdom that is only safe when guarded by him . 19" can also be seen in Donne's imagery in the rest of the poem. In line 11 of the sonnet, the speaker commands his lover, "Away from that happy busk, which I envy." The bodice referred to by the narrator is symbolically seen as a device that "allowed women to hide their femininity, endow themselves with a masculine form and, therefore, power" (Feinstein 63) although the speaker's "envy" most likely alludes to the parallel of Women Between the hard, erect torso and erection of the narrator, this jealousy of the bodice 69)., 2000.