John Donne

Lovers' Infiniteness

IF yet I have not all thy love,
Dear, I shall never have it all;
I cannot breathe one other sigh, to move,
Nor can intreat one other tear to fall;

Courtly love economics

Donne treats love like a legal contract. 'Treasure,' 'purchase,' 'spent,' 'due,' 'bargain'—he's doing accounting, not romance.

And all my treasure, which should purchase thee,
Sighs, tears, and oaths, and letters I have spent;
Yet no more can be due to me,
Than at the bargain made was meant.
If then thy gift of love were partial,
That some to me, some should to others fall,
{{gap|1em}}Dear, I shall never have thee all.
Or if then thou gavest me all,
All was but all, which thou hadst then;
But if in thy heart since there be or shall
New love created be by other men,
Which have their stocks entire, and can in tears,
In sighs, in oaths, and letters, outbid me,
This new love may beget new fears,
For this love was not vow'd by thee.
And yet it was, thy gift being general;
The ground, thy heart, is mine; what ever shall

Property law problem

Legal principle: if you own the land, you own what grows on it. He's claiming future love as real estate.

{{gap|1em}}Grow there, dear, I should have it all.

The paradox pivot

Sudden reversal—after two stanzas demanding everything, he now says he doesn't want it. Watch what this enables.

Yet I would not have all yet.
He that hath all can have no more;
And since my love doth every day admit
New growth, thou shouldst have new rewards in store;
Thou canst not every day give me thy heart,
If thou canst give it, then thou never gavest it;

Gift theory paradox

If you can give your heart away repeatedly, you never truly gave it the first time. Donne's playing with what 'giving' means.

Love's riddles are, that though thy heart depart,
It stays at home, and thou with losing savest it;
But we will have a way more liberal,

The metaphysical solution

Instead of trading hearts (which creates the paradox), merge them. Unity solves the ownership problem.

Than changing hearts, to join them; so we shall
{{gap|1em}}Be one, and one another's all.
Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

The Legal Problem of Love

Donne structures this poem as a contract dispute. The first stanza argues he's already spent everything—"Sighs, tears, and oaths, and letters"—so under the original bargain, he can't get more love than was initially promised. He's out of currency.

The second stanza introduces the legal loophole: property law. If "the ground, thy heart, is mine," then he owns not just current love but all future growth. Other men might have "their stocks entire" (fresh resources to bid with), but Donne claims ownership of the land itself. It's a clever argument: you can't outbid someone who owns the factory.

But this creates the central paradox: if he already owns everything ("all"), there's no room for love to grow. The third stanza resolves this by rejecting ownership entirely. Instead of exchanging hearts (which means you lose yours to gain theirs), they'll join hearts. "Be one, and one another's all" means mutual possession without loss—you keep your heart and have theirs too. It's Donne's metaphysical escape hatch from the economics he set up.

What 'All' Means

The word "all" appears 14 times in 33 lines, but its meaning keeps shifting. First stanza: "all thy love" means the complete amount you currently have. Second stanza: "all" includes future love not yet created—"All was but all, which thou hadst then" points out the limitation. Third stanza: "all" becomes something that grows daily.

The refrain "I shall never have thee all" / "I should have it all" / "one another's all" tracks this evolution. First use: complaint. Second: legal claim. Third: mutual solution. Same phrase, different meanings.

Donne loves this kind of logical game. The poem isn't really about whether he has her complete love—it's about what "complete" could possibly mean when love changes. His solution (merging rather than trading) is the only way to have "all" of something that grows. It's metaphysical poetry's signature move: take an abstract problem, push it to logical extremes, then escape through paradox.