In his essay “A Defense of a Woman's Fickleness,” John Donne wrote of the female race that “despite all their camaraderie , they will never be tamed, nor commanded by us." Her affinity for the grace and beauty of women is evident in her many works. Yet Donne establishes a paradox within 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 like to admit the presence of misogyny in one of the greatest love poets in the English language, but we must accept. " (813).Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get an Original Essay Although he is widely known for his witty and intellectual poetry about love, At first glance, John Donne is not generally considered a misogynist, but rather a craftsman of words and metaphors, offering "an astonishing variety of attitudes, views, and feelings" (Logan, 1235). Written in the 17th century, Donne's poem "Elegy 19", later titled "To His Mistress Goes to Bed", is a sexual allegory illustrating the male perspective of sexual intercourse. However, this descriptive and fanciful elegy provides a clear objectification of sexual relations. women, both through Donne's use of possessive words and expressions in his imagery, and through the character of his mistress in the poem With the use of possessive grammar and images of women as property. , Donne establishes a misogynistic tone in "Elegy 19", particularly in the second stanza. The speaker claims possession of his mistress using meticulous pronouns: Allow my wandering hands, and let them go Before, behind, between, up, down. O my America! my new land, My kingdom, safest when inhabited by one man, My mine of precious stones, my empery (25-29). Here, the narrator's use of "my" and "mine" alludes to his lover's ownership. , and “the repeated possessives reinforce the feeling of his mastery” over the woman who slowly undresses in front of him (Guibbory 822). Much like the controlling syntax of the second stanza, Donne's descriptive allegory of woman in "Elegy 19" establishes power and authority. held by the speaker in relation to his mistress. Woman is “knowingly idealized and commodified through a variety of astonishing vanities which aim to conquer her” (Guibbory 821). Donne symbolizes the mistress in the second stanza, line 27, as “O my America! my new land,” which implies the mistress as nothing more than a simple property for the speaker to discover and appropriate. His only desire in the sonnet is to “possess and thus master the colonized woman” (Guibbory 822). According to Germaine Greer, "Catherine Ginelli Martin identifies the speaker's goal in this poem as...at once objectifying, humiliating, and figuratively violating her 'Newfoundland'" (218). Line 28 refers to the mistress as "My kingdom, most secure when ruled by one man", also signifying her objectification by the narrator, as she is depicted as a conquered kingdom that is only safe when guarded by him. The misogyny of "Elegy" 19" can also be seen in Donne's imagery throughout the rest of the poem. In line 11 of the sonnet, the speaker commands his lover: "Go away with this merry busk that I envy." The bodice to which the narrator refers is symbolically seen as a device that “allowed women to hide their femininity, to assume a masculine form and, therefore, to have power” (Feinstein 63). 69)., 2000.