"Woman's Constancy" or lack thereof?

In Woman's Constancy, John Donne uses the tone/mood of doubt and cynicism and rhetorical questions to question is the validity or everlasting love with the significant other. Although the speaker is not easily clarified, regardless of whether it is a woman or man, the speaker questions how long their love will last and whether they will always be true to eachother with their rhetorical questions and doubtful tone. "Tomorrow when thou leav'st, what wilt thou say?" this line displays the fact that the speaker may feel very cynical about love and is already concluding that their significant other will leave them because they are saying tomorrow when you leave me without including a maybe. In Woman's Constancy, the meaning of the title plays a key role in the poem because it may suggest the "woman's loyalty" to the man. This creates a double meaning because it may be that the woman is writing about her loyalty to the man and whether he will ever leave her, OR the man writing to the woman in a somewhat mocking way because of the title, saying how the woman may end up cheating on him. Because of the doubt all through this poem, it leads to the inference that maybe the speaker is cynical about love and always thinks about how it will end like when Donne says, "Or, as true deaths, true marriages untie." This suggests how the speaker is very stubborn about the fact that like death which is inevitable, marriages will also inevitably break, setting a doubtful and cynical tone for the poem. Another cynical aspect to love in this poem is when it states, "Or, that oaths made in reverential fear" stating maybe that love or marriage is just a fake and that we only make oaths to our significant others because it's the custom religious way of getting married. Overall, Donnes use of tone and rhetorical questions helps show his feelings about love and the significant other and also shows the pessimistic and cynical side of love and its "so-called" everlastingness.

Donne with Donne.

THE GOOD-MORROW. by John Donne

I WONDER by my troth, what thou and I

Did, till we loved ? were we not wean'd till then ?

But suck'd on country pleasures, childishly ?

Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers' den ?

'Twas so ; but this, all pleasures fancies be ;

If ever any beauty I did see,

Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee.

And now good-morrow to our waking souls,

Which watch not one another out of fear ;

For love all love of other sights controls,

And makes one little room an everywhere.

Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone ;

Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown ;

Let us possess one world ; each hath one, and is one.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,

And true plain hearts do in the faces rest ;

Where can we find two better hemispheres

Without sharp north, without declining west ?

Whatever dies, was not mix'd equally ;

If our two loves be one, or thou and I

Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die.

In the poem The Good Morrow, by John Donne, Donne uses literary techniques like diction and hyperboles to create the romantic tone for this love poem. Donne uses hyperboles like, "If ever any beauty I did see, Which I desir’d, and got, t’was but a dreame of thee." This line refers to the woman he is writing this love poem to and Donne exaggerates his love by saying how this woman is so great that all the other women he's ever been with have just become dreams of her. Another hyperbole is seen in, "Whatever dies was not mixed equally; If our two loves be one, or, thou and I love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die" Here, Donne suggests how love cannot die unless they're not meant for eachother and he's reinforcing the fact that with this woman, this isn't true and that their love could never die. With the use of hyperboles, Donne helps create a much romantic and appealing tone to the reader because it provides his loving thoughts and emotions about the woman he loves. Diction also helps create the tone because when he speaks about the woman he loves, he uses a much more profound and sophisticated word choice to create the tone and even mood of the poem. "Did, till we loved? were we not weaned till then, But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?" Donne's diction creates a more sophisticated tone and also creates a more profound meaning to his poems, in the previous line Donne suggests that his love might have been childish before he met her, his true love. Diction is also seen with his use of punctuation and how he is able to create double meanings with the use of rhetorical questions in the first stanza, "Or snorted we in the seven sleepers' den?"

Donne's tone is created with the help of diction and hyperboles. These literary devices help create a more romantic and meaningful feel of the poem that expresses his deep desire for the one he loves in a articulately passionate way.

*I realized by the end of this poem that Donne sorta creates a timeline, "Good Morrow" meaning good morning is stated in the beginning of the poem and what he speaks of last is death...I don't know, that could mean something.