Rhonda Stanford’s book Maps and Memory in Early Modern England. The Sense of Place is a discussion of the importance of maps in early-modern English literature. She explores the ways in which mapping metaphors are more than “merely another trope for description” and how poets, authors, and poets use early modern techniques of cartography to help them structure their writing. An in-depth study of John Donne’s poems, which includes maps, is not included in her study. Stanford puts Donne in the same category as Shakespeare. His poetry maps out “woman’s land or country to conquer” (140-1, 59). Contrary, I argue Donne uses maps exactly in the way Stanford’s Book suggests. Donne’s poetry maps out “woman as a land or country to be conquered” (140-1, 59). The Good Morrow (Donne’s poem on map-making) and A Valediction of Weeping (Donne’s poetry about it) deal with this theme. Donne’s use of maps is not a way to understand the body as Stanford suggests. Instead, Donne’s mapping process reflects Donne his ability create poetry. And, perhaps most important, rather that being a subject of Donne’s mapping, Donne’s women become unlikely co-cartographers. Donne’s map has been a most popular image in his poetry. However, there is a common theme to many of these interpretations: they attempt to tie Donne’s images to the body. Julia Walker and Richard Sharp wrote essays about the map image in “The Good Morrow”. Both authors grappled with the paradox in which Donne presented the two lovers as separate “hearts”, “faces”, as well as two “hemispheres” (14-8). Sharp assumed that Donne was using a cordiform chart as his source. Sharp then overlays the body onto the map, giving it a heart shape. Elaine Scarry notes in her essay “Donne, But Yet the Body Is His Booke” that Donne frequently takes an inventory of his body. He often finds it “coinhabited” by names, towns, and even “lens[es],” all which are similar to the map image. It seems that everyone agrees that the map is a metaphor for Donne’s body and that mapping is Donne’s exploration of and categorizations of its surfaces. Donne’s poem body-as map is a common trope. This is evident in my two chosen poems. Donne uses metaphors in these two poems where the body acts as the tenor while the body serves as the vehicle. Walker is right when he says that “The Good Morrow”, is a “complex pasticcio” of eyes, maps and hearts. Donne does not describe a woman’s body in his poem. Instead, he describes a de-gendered, plain-looking body. Donne’s speaker can be seen as both a map-maker or the subject of this image. As he maps his own body onto his loved one’s, and vice-versa. The metaphor of a globe is used in “A Valediction of Weeping”, to describe the beloved’s tears. The tear grows quickly and becomes its own “globe, yea planet”, creating a complex interplay between vehicle (16). These metaphors do use maps as a way of describing the body. The danger of reading too much into the metaphor’s tenor (the body) is that one misses the complexity and nuance of the map. Donne’s poems are literally about space and place. The map is essential to understanding these concepts. Donne in “The Good Morrow” wants to eliminate the space between the speaker and his loved one; “A Valediction of Weeping,” as in “A Valediction forbidding Morning”) wants to eliminate travel as a threat to his union (as in “A Valediction forbidding Morning”) (9). These poems are all about manipulating space through map-making. Donne’s vision of union with his lover is possible because map-making and playing in space are key to his love. The map serves as the central image of these poems. However, the map is not static. Both poems describe a process for map-making. This is especially evident in “A Valediction of Weeping”, where “a worker” places “an Europe and Afric on a blank globe” (11, 12). Donne insists on the fact that the globe does not begin as anything, just a round ball. However, the workman’s craft makes it “all,” emphasizing the process as well the end product (10-12). The map described in “The Good Morrow”, as being in motion, is north “sharp,” indicating a turn, while west “declining” (18). The poem also mentions “sea finders” who go to new worlds and map them out (12-3). Again, the poem emphasizes maps as they are created. Poetry itself is a parallel to these images of the worker creating a globe, and the discovery of new worlds being charted. Donne assumes the power to manipulate space in poetry by using the agency of the cartographer, or the workman. This fits with Franz Reitinger’s statement about early modern maps, which stated that the “graphic formula of cartography” was used to attempt to provide a comprehensive overview of phenomena and make them understandable. Donne claims that place is a problem in “A Valediction of Weeping” (9); indeed, the poem is a valediction and the speaker fears his departure. He also believes that the wind will do him more harm than it intends as he travels across the water (22-25). Donne creates an alternative map to the poem, in which the lover becomes the world, or the “sphere”, in which the speaker may be drowned (20). Donne’s attempt to chart and name places in his poem is similar to the way that a cartographer would draw a map. These tears even “overflow/this planet”, signifying that Donne is creating a new world. Donne’s new worldview allows the speaker to be with his beloved all the way. Because she is the whole world, there is no danger of separation. The Good Morrow is a poem that focuses on space on a smaller scale than “A Valediction of Weeping,” which emphasized the power of love over place. He and his beloved also condense “worlds-on-worlds” into a single, exclusive world. The speaker wishes to combine his and his beloved’s identities and bodies into one. He also uses the mapping trope. In the third stanza the speaker maps his head into his beloved’s eyes, then maps hers to his. This moves the lovers closer together and eliminates any physical space between them (15). Donne isn’t creating a new body by mapping an existing one. Donne creates a new world for the lovers in both poems. Donne’s masculine speaker (or Donne himself) doesn’t have all the authority and power of a cartographer. Instead, the poem’s female author takes part in map-making in both poems. Rebecca Ann Bach’s assertion that Donne is plagued by “a virulent sexism” (262), is complicated by the agency these women have. It is the woman who “coins” the speaker’s tears with her “stamp,” in “A Valediction of Weeping”. Donne uses language of trade and craftsmanship (through the imagery building and coins) to explain the woman’s actions. This reinforces her agency. The woman is given agency in “The Good Morrow”, which posits a shared, collaborative identity between the lovers. The speaker creates a new world view by saying, “Let us possess one world.” This emphasizes the lovebirds’ shared agency (14 emphasis mine). The woman in “The Good Morrow”, unlike the other women he “desired and got”, is no longer a possessor, but a possessor. The idea that the speaker’s beloved is “mixed equally”, speaks to the power and control they share in these poems and the importance of Donne’s mapping process. (19). Stanford points out that Donne’s map imagery is indeed related to gender. However, Donne doesn’t map her body gendered by the poet. Instead, Stanford says, the woman is responsible for creating the map. The map-making process, which is the solution to the problem of physical separation that the lovers face in “The Good Morrow”, “A Valediction of Weeping” and “The Good Morrow,” both solves the problem. Donne sees map-making not only as a key process that informs his poetry but also as a symbol for commenting on another thing. The most iconic map image in Donne’s writings is the one at the end of “A Valediction of Weeping”: The woman is the one who is responsible for mapping the world. Donne bridges the distance between his beloved and science by using mapping as a writing technique and writing about places. Works Cited Bach, Rebecca Ann. “(Re)placing Donne In The History of Sexuality.” ELH72 (2005): 259-89. Donne, John. Songs and Sonnets. Luminarium. (January 2000).
On 12 March 2010. –. “A Valediction for Weeping.” Songs & Sonnets. Luminarium. (January 2000).
