Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies.
John DonneRead
For I am every dead thing In whom love wrought new alchemy For his art did express A quintessence even from nothingness, From dull privations, and lean emptiness He ruined me, and I am re-begot Of absence, darkness, death; things which are not.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses how love can transform even the most desolate parts of existence into something profound and meaningful.
In this quote, John Donne delves into the power of love and its ability to create beauty and significance from what appears to be lost or void. He uses metaphors of death and emptiness to illustrate that love, like alchemy, can turn these negatives into something potent and renewed, highlighting the transformative nature of love itself.
Themes
LoveTransformationAlchemyDeathEmptinessArt
In practice
Example use cases
During a wedding ceremony to express the power of love.
More from John Donne
All quotes →Reason is our soul's left hand, Faith her right, By these we reach divinity
John DonneRead
All occasions invite His mercies, and all times are His seasons.
John DonneRead
If poisonous minerals, and if that tree, Whose fruit threw death on else immortal us, If lecherous goats, if serpents envious Cannot be damned; alas; why should I be?
John DonneRead
Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
John DonneRead
I call not that virginity a virtue, which resideth onely in the bodies integrity; much less if it be with a purpose of perpetually keeping it: for then it is a most inhumane vice. - But I call that Virginity a virtue which is willing and desirous to yield it self upon honest and lawfull terms, when just reason requireth; and until then, is kept with a modest chastity of body and mind.
John DonneRead
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