The expense of spirit in a waste of shame.
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ut neither sensual passion, nor gay and cynical wit, nor scornand anger, is the dominant note in Donne's love-poetry. Of the lastquality there is, despite the sardonic emphasis of some of the poems,less than in either Shakespeare or Catullus. There is nothing inhis poetry which speaks so poignantly of an outraged heart, a lovelavished upon one who was worthless, as some of Shakespeare's sonnetsand of Catullus's poems. The finest note in Donne's love-poetry is thenote of joy, the joy of mutual and contented passion. His heart mightbe subtle to plague itself; its capacity for joy is even more obvious.Other poets have done many things which Donne could not do. They haveinvested their feelings with a garb of richer and sweeter poetry. Theyhave felt more deeply and finely the reverence which is in the heartof love. But it is only in the fragments of Sappho, the lyrics ofCatullus, and the songs of Burns that one will find the sheer joyof loving and being loved expressed in the same direct and simplelanguage as in some of Donne's songs, only in Browning that one willfind the same simplicity of feeling combined with a like swift andsubtle dialectic. I wonder by my troth what thou and IDid till we loved.
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