Elements of Plato in John Donnes The Good Morrow Essay example -- Don

Elements of Plato in John Donnes The Good Morrow There argon clear Platonic elements in Donnes The Good Morrow. The idea that Donne and his lady are halves that sleep with each other is traceable to Platos theory of love. Lines 7 and 8 of the poem refer to the Platonic World of Ideas the lady is presented as the Idea of Beauty, of which all temporal beauty is but an imperfect reflection. My argument, however, is that Platos cave allegory and his World of Ideas are integral to a full understanding of this highly complex poem.The first graphic symbol to the Platonic cave comes in line 4 of the poem Or snorted we in the seven sleepers den? The seven sleepers are seven young Christians who were walled up in a cave in the year 249. Miraculously, they did not die but slept for 187 years. This miracle of early Christianity is negatively presented by Donne and the plight of the seven snorters may induce a relationship to Platos cave there are fundamental similarities between Platos cave- dwellers on the one hand, and the seven Christians (and the biblical myth of hejira, for that matter) on the other hand, jibe to Downing. In both cases, there is a God who cares for the people involved, even though they are unaware of this fact in the first case because they are asleep, in the second because they mistake shadows of shadows for reality. They are both trapped in a cave from which they apparently female genitalsnot escape. And they both dwell in darkness. In a poet of Donnes complexity, it is not far-fetched to argue that line 4 refers both to the seven Christians and to Platos cave-dwellers, and that Donne wished us to read it in precisely this way. Such an argument is reinforced by the fact that the line is immediately followed by... ...a Platonic Idea is, of course, a paradox, as the World of Ideas is not only deathless but supposedly has existed since the beginning of time.)Alternatively, one can argue that Donne (or his poetic voice) experiences a transient re lationship in this poem that may or may not develop into a Platonic Idea. alike(p) Platos cave-dwellers who came out into the light, however, he has learned a great deal and become capable, as a consequence, of achieving the Platonic Idea of sexual love in a possibly new, deathless encounter that is mixed equally.WORKS CITED Donne, John. The Good Morrow. The Oxford Anthology of English Literature. Vol. 1. Ed. Frank Kermode and John Hollander. New York Oxford UP, 1974. 1024-25.Downing, Christopher. How Can We Hope and Not Dream? Exodus as Metaphor A Study of the Biblical Imagination. Journal of Religion 48 (1968) 35-53.