the term dualism is employed in opposition to monism

“....the term dualism is employed in opposition to monism, to signify the ordinary view that the existing universe contains two radically distinct kinds of being or substance -- matter and spirit, body and mind” (Catholic Encyclopedia, online <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05169a.htm>)

“According to substance dualism, our minds and our bodies are two distinct substances capable of existing apart.” (Descartes, Mind Body Dualism)

Donne’s poetry frustrates at once the Catholic dichotomy between spirit and flesh, and the later Cartesian dichotomy between mind and body. Moreover, in his poems Donne constantly contradicts himself. Some of his love poems seem to celebrate  spirituality, while others emphasize sexuality. In others he simply mingles the two.  A good example of the last mode is A Hymn to God the Father, where Donne explores both the theme of deep spirituality and physical carnality.

In the first stanza, Donne addresses God, inquiring whether God will forgive “that sin where I begun, which is my sin, though it were done before”. Donne speaks, of course, of the sin of the sexual act. By referring to the original sin of Adam and Eve (“done before”), Donne partially relieves himself of responsibility for committing the sin. The words “where I begun” allude to the protestant belief that all people are born with sin, due only to the fact that they are born from the sin of their parents. The lines “that sin through which I run, and do run still, though still I do deplore” suggest that Donne, being born from sin (“through which I run”), and repenting, nevertheless continues to sin, “and do run still”. “When thou hast done, thou hast not done, for I have more”, on a literal level means that even if God forgives his sin, he (God) will not accomplish this forgiveness, because he (Donne) has more sins. However, here Donne may use a pun on words. Then these lines may be read as “When thou hast done, thou hast not Donne, for I have More” (Ann More is his wife’s maiden name). In this case, these lines mean that if God forgives him, he (God) does not have Donne (that is to say, Donne distances himself from God), because Donne has his wife More, to whom he feels an irresistible sexual attraction.

     In the second stanza Donne confesses that by his sin he “have won others to sin...and made my sin their door”. These lines suggest, that by his earthly love for his wife, he induced her to sin, too. “My sin their door” is a kind of salvation for his wife.  Maybe that is not the exact word -- it is a kind of oblivion -- but in any case the meaning here is very positive. Donne says that this sin is good, both for him and his wife, because when he “did shun [this sin] a year or too”, he “wallowed in a score” - he tried not to sin, but could not stand it. By confessing that he finds pleasure in committing the sin, Donne again distances himself from God.

     In the third stanza Donne, however, directs his eyes towards God. Here he expresses fear that “when I have spun my last thread, I shall perish on the shore”. That is to say, when the time comes for him to die, he will be deprived of God’s grace. His next words are pleading to God, “Swear by thyself, that at my death thy Son shall shine as he shines now and heretofore” - swear, that when I die, your grace, your mercy will shine. (Other sources read “thy Sun”, but son or sun, in relation to God the meaning is the same - God’s grace.). And if God does that, he has Donne, and Donne has no more reason to fear - “I fear no more”. However, in some manuscripts the last line reads as “I have no more”. Probably the poem is a retrospective on the sin Donne indulged in when his wife was alive - “I have no More”. And maybe only because he has no More, he tosses himself to God’s breast.

By giving the poem the title  A Hymn to God the Father, (let’s suppose that he did not title it himself, but anyway this poem is addressed to God the FATHER), Donne breaks the unity of the Christian God. (In his other poem he writes, “Batter my heart, three-personnel God”). Although he does mention Son in the third stanza, the lines “swear by thyself, that at my death thy son shall shine....” suggest that Donne perceives Son separate from God, and probably even dependent on God the Father.

     Nevertheless, there is a slight dichotomy between the title of the poem and its content. This is a very erotic poem. Instead of being a hymn to God, I would argue, it is a hymn to sin. Nowhere in the poem does Donne repent or express remorse. Although he asks for God’s forgiveness, it is forgiveness in advance, because Donne is not going to stop committing this sin. Thus, this poem presents a conflict between Donne’s spiritual piety and bodily passions, which he nevertheless succeeds in solving in his own favor.

     Further, I would like to attend to two poems by Donne; one of which, The Flea, celebrates the physical side of love, while  the other, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, describes a spiritual love. (In both poems, however, Donne uses the reason to convince his beloved to do what he at the moment perceives to be appropriate).

     In The Flea Donne asks his lover to look at a flea that just sucked his and her blood, and to note “how little that which thou deniest me is”. That is to say he tries to convince her that sleeping with him is a really tiny thing, which she could do easily without losing anything, for “in this flea our two bloods mingled be”, - their bloods are already mingled in the flea. Donne tries to convince his lover that the flea’s behavior “cannot be said a sin, or shame, or loss of maidenhead”; yet compared to that which “we would do”, the flea’s misdeed is more serious.

     As his lover makes an attempt to kill the flea, Donne arrests the her hand, for there are “three lives in one flea” now, when it sucked their blood. The flea is “our marriage bed and temple”. Although their parents disapprove, and she will not sleep with him, they are already “cloistered in these living walls of jet”. The murder of the flea, he says, can be considered “self-murder”, “and sacrilege, three sins in killing three”.

     However, as his lover “purpled [her] nails in blood of innocence”, Donne calls her “cruel and sudden”. He asks her “wherein could this flea guilty be, except in that drop which it sucked from thee”. The triumph of her success in killing the flea Donne converts against her: if she thinks that, having killed the flea, she does not find either herself or him “the weaker now”, then her fears about losing anything if she “yeild’st” to him, are false.

    

     In A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning Donne convinces his lover not to mourn over his departure. Like “virtuous men pass mildly away”, their parting must be without “tear-floods” and “sigh-tempests”. They do not have to publicly announce their love, for it would be a “profanation”. Donne uses examples of “moving of th’e earth” that brings “harms and fears”, and “trepidation of the spheres”, that is innocent despite its power. The first disaster Donne equates with “dull sublunary lovers’ love”, and the second with their spiritual love, which, although greater than the physical love of  mundane people,  its “trepidation” can not do them any harm. Their love is “so much refined”, that it has nothing to do with physicality; and being away from each other they are not going to miss each other’s eyes, lips and hands.

     Their souls, Donne says, are so connected that parting will not break, but rather expand them, “like gold of airy thinness beat”. He compares their souls to “twin compasses”: his lover’s soul is “the fixed foot” in the center, and his is the one that “far doth roam”. Together they make a perfect circle - as one stands still, the other moves around, yet the “fixed foot” makes him “end where I begun” - that is draws him back.

     We see that in The Flea Donne celebrates the physical aspect of love, while in The Valediction he is critical of the “dull sublunary lovers’ love”, which does not stand the physical absence of the beloved. While The Valediction explores a theme of pure spiritual love,  in The Flea, the theme of which is explicitly physical, Donne, however, employs such references to spirituality as “temple” and  “marriage”, in this way mingling the different essences of love.  In addition to that, I would suggest that it is his inconstancy -- his adherence to both sides of love and being -- that contributes to the “frustration” of the spirit/body and mind/body dichotomies.