John Donne, "To His Mistress Going to Bed"

Come, Madam, come, all rest my powers defy,
연인이여 오세요. 나의 힘이 잠을 거부해요
Until I labour, I in labour lie.
내가 그대와 잠자리를 하기 전에는 힘든 노동에 놓여있어요
The foe oft-times having the foe in sight,
적은 종종 적을 보는 것만으로도 피곤해요
마치 연인을 적을 보고 있는 느낌
Is tir’d with standing though he never fight.
그 적은 싸우지 않는 적을 보는 것으로도 피곤해요
Off with that girdle, like heaven’s Zone glistering,
벨트를 풀고, 그 허리띠는 마치 천공처럼 반짝이지만
But a far fairer world encompassing.
훨씬 더 아름다운 세계를 감싸고 있어요.
Unpin that spangled breastplate which you wear,
당신이 입고 있는 자수박힌 코르셋을 풀어요,
That th’eyes of busy fools may be stopped there.
그 코르셋은 멍청한 사내들의 눈이 거기서 멈추게 만들어요.
자신은 코르셋에 관심 있는 멍청한 남자들과 달리 몸에 관심있음
Unlace yourself, for that harmonious chime,
옷을 풀어요, 감미로운 소리가
Tells me from you, that now it is bed time.
당신에게서 나와서 잠자리에 들 시간이라고 말해요
Off with that happy busk, which I envy,
내가 질투하는 행복한 코르셋을 벗어요
That still can be, and still can stand so nigh.
늘 당신 곁에 있고, 가까이에 서 있을 수 있잖아요
Your gown going off, such beauteous state reveals,
당신의 가운이 떨어지고 이런 아름다운 상태가 드러나요
As when from flowery meads th’hill’s shadow steals.
마치 언덕의 그림자가 조용히 꽃이 핀 초원을 떠나갈 때
Off with that wiry Coronet and shew
이 작은 화관을 벗고 보여주세요
The hairy Diadem which on you doth grow:
당신의 머리에서 자라나는 왕관을
바울 -> 당시 르네상스 시절 여성에 대해 스카프를 두르도록함. 머리를 아무한테나 보여주지 않고 내밀한 상대에게만 보여줌
Now off with those shoes, and then safely tread
이제 그 신발을 벗고, 안전하게 걸어요
In this love’s hallow’d temple, this soft bed.
이 성스러운의 성전의 부드러운 침대로
In such white robes, heaven’s Angels used to be
그런 흰 옷을 입고 하늘의 천사들이
Received by men; Thou Angel bringst with thee
인사를 받았덨 것처럼(화자), 천사같은 그대가
A heaven like Mahomet’s Paradise; and though
마호메트의 천상같은 천국을 불러와요; 비록
Ill spirits walk in white, we easily know,
나쁜 정령들도 흰 옷을 입고 돌아다니지만, 우리는 쉽게 알 수 있어요,
By this these Angels from an evil sprite,
나쁜 정령으로부터 천사들을
Those set our hairs, but these our flesh upright.
나쁜 정령들은 우리의 머리를 솓게 하지만, 천사들은 우리의 육신을 똑바로 서게 해요.
penis를 upright

Licence my roving hands, and let them go,
    내 더듬는 손을 허락해줘요, 그리고 가게 해줘요,
   
Before, behind, between, above, below.
앞, 뒤, 사이, 위, 아래로
O my America! my new-found-land,
내 미국이여! 새로 발견한 대륙이여,
남아메리카 대륙을 의미
My kingdom, safeliest when with one man mann’d,
나의 왕국이고, 한 남자가 통치할 때 가장 안전한
여성의 몸을 탐험하고 통치하는 것처럼 묘사
My Mine of precious stones, My Empirie,
내 소중한 보물이 나오는 광산, 내 제국,
How blest am I in this discovering thee!
당신을 발견해서 내가 얼마나 복받은지!
To enter in these bonds, is to be free;
이러한 헌신으로 가는 것이 자유로워지고
Then where my hand is set, my seal shall be.
그 때 내 손이 놓여지는 곳에 내 자취도 놓여질 거예요.

Full nakedness! All joys are due to thee,
완전한 전라! 모든 즐거움이 당신 덕분이고

As souls unbodied, bodies uncloth’d must be,
영혼이 몸으로부터 자유로워지는 것처럼, 몸도 옷을 벗어야 해요,
To taste whole joys. Gems which you women use
모든 즐거움을 맛보기 위해서요. 당신이 사용하는 보석들은
Are like Atlanta’s balls, cast in men’s views,
아틀란타의 공과 같이, 남자들이 보라고 던져준
아틀란타 -> 자신보다 빠른 사람이 자신과 결혼한다 했는데 상대가 사과 던진거 줍다가 짐 남성을 회유하기 위해서 사용한 사과와 같은 보석
여성의 몸이 아닌 장신구가 남성의 관심을 끔
That when a fool’s eye lighteth on a Gem,
멍청이들의 눈에 보석이 띄면,
His earthly soul may covet theirs, not them.
그의 저급한 영혼은 여성들이 아닌 보석을 탐하게 돼요
Like pictures, or like books’ gay coverings made
그림과 같이, 책의 화려한 표지 같이
책의 내용(몸)이 아닌 겉모습(장신구)에 홀리는 남성들
For lay-men, are all women thus array’d;
남자들에게 모든 여성들은 보여져요
Themselves are mystic books, which only we
성스러운 책 같이, 이는 우리만이
(Whom their imputed grace will dignify)
(정가된 영광을 받았음을 알기 때문에)
Must see reveal’d. Then since that I may know;
벗겨진 모습을 봐야해요.
As liberally, as to a Midwife, shew

Thy self: cast all, yea, this white linen hence,
흰 천을 벗어던져요, 그럼
There is no penance due to innocence.

To teach thee, I am naked first; why then
당신에게 가르침을 주기 위해 내가 먼저 벗을게요.
What needst thou have more covering than a man.
왜 당신이 남자보다 더 가려야 할까요

Love and Sex

• “To His Mistress Going to Bed” is a love poem, but it breaks from the traditions of love poetry in an important way. This poem is not going to follow the rules and standards that all those other elegant Renaissance love poems follow. The speaker is straightforward and direct about his desire: he wants to have sex with his mistress, as soon as possible.

• “To His Mistress Going to Bed” does follow some of the traditions of love poetry. For instance, many Renaissance poets wrote poems called “blazons.” In a blazon, the speaker praises a woman’s body, comparing each part to some beautiful object. Her hair is like a golden net, her checks are like roses, etc. Donne’s poem contains a kind of blazon. But instead of praising his mistress’s body, the speaker focuses on her clothes, describing each item of clothing in turn—her “girdle,” her “breastplate,” her “busk,” etc. He compares these items of clothing to beautiful things: her girdle, for instance, is “like heaven’s Zone glistering.” In other words, with its embroidery shimmering in the candlelight, it looks like the night sky, full of brilliant stars.

• The speaker has a good reason for focusing on his mistress’s clothes. His real goal is to get his mistress naked. Thus, even as he praises his mistress’s girdle, he also commands her to take it off. And he also wants to have sex with her: as he says in lines 25-26, he wants his “roving hands” to go all over his mistress’s body.

• This marks an important break with most Renaissance love poems. It’s safe to assume that other poets are as full of sexual desire as Donne, but they’re not being honest about it.  They don’t just come right out and say that they want the women they’re praising to get naked and have sex with them. But the speaker has no compunctions about it: he says, directly, what he wants.

• He uses the traditions of Renaissance love poetry to do so, but he ends up discarding those traditions in favor of a straightforward, direct way.

• There is some evidence that the early readers of the poem found this a bit shocking. For instance, the printer of the first edition of Donne’s Songs and Sonnets (1633) refused to print “To His Mistress Going to Bed,” because he felt it was pornographic. The poem wasn’t printed until 1699. The poem is so direct and frank about sexual desire that it caused a small scandal among its early readers, used, as they were, to the coy and genteel traditions of Renaissance love poetry—traditions that “To His Mistress Going to Bed” gleefully discards.

• 여성의 몸을 봄으로써 진리를 발견할 수 있는 것처럼 묘사. 성경처럼 묘사. 단순 쾌락이 아님.

• 믿음이 있는 신자와 아닌 신자를 구분 하는 것처럼 묘사

Nakedness and Truth

• The speaker of “To His Mistress Going to Bed” spends most of the poem trying to convince his “mistress” to take off her clothes. As he does so, he makes some surprising claims about nakedness. Though he praises the beauty and elegance of his lover’s clothing, he argues that such clothing is deceptive and misleading: it hides the deep secrets of her naked body. For the speaker, his mistress’s naked body holds important truths that seem almost holy or sacred and which only wise men deserve to see and understand.

• From the start, the speaker suggests that his mistress’s body is more than just a body. In lines 5-6, he compares her body to the “world” and the “girdle” that she wears to “heaven’s Zone glistering.” In other words, her body is a world unto itself and her clothing is like the starry sky above the world. The speaker is playing on Renaissance ideas about something called the microcosm. For many Renaissance thinkers, something small—like a person’s body—could stand in for the whole universe. Studying that microcosm would allow someone to discover essential truths about the universe. If his mistress’s body is a microcosm for the universe, then the speaker should “study” it in detail to learn the essential truths. In other words, he makes it into an excuse to get his mistress naked.

• In later parts of the poem, the speaker uses a series of complicated references, metaphors, and similes to drive the point home. Clothes are like “Atlanta’s balls.” In Greek myth, the hero Hippomenes threw golden apples in front of the virgin Atlanta to distract her, so that he could beat her in a foot race and take her virginity. Reversing the roles in the myth, the speaker claims that the clothes and gems that women wear distract the “fool’s eye.” Fools, according to the speaker, lust after gems and clothing, rather than a woman’s actual body.

• But wise men realize that women are like religious texts: under their “gay coverings,” they contain essential, spiritual truths. Fools miss these truths, but “we”—the speaker and other wise men—“must see” them. This a surprising, even blasphemous, comparison: the speaker is saying that seeing a naked woman is like grasping a difficult religious document.

• Through these comparisons the speaker makes a point that would’ve been familiar to many Renaissance readers: the exterior of things is deceitful and superfluous; its interior is its essence, the thing that really matters. The speaker thus turns to ideas drawn from religion and philosophy, but he takes them out of their original context and instead uses them to seduce his mistress.

Sex and Possesion

• “To His Mistress Going to Bed” is a poem of seduction. The speaker tries to convince his “mistress” to undress, get in bed, and have sex with him. Its tone is light and comic. But he makes some serious claims about sex itself. Sex is about possession. He wants to control his “mistress” in the same way that an imperial power establishes its power over a colony.

• Though the speaker spends the first twenty-odd lines of the poem convincing his mistress to get undressed, that isn’t enough for him. As the poem’s second stanza opens, he demands permission to let his “roving hands … go” all over her body. Exploring his mistress’s body is like exploring a newly-discovered country: “my America! my new-found-land.”

• At the time the poem was written in the 1590s, America had been recently discovered by Europeans; countries like England, Spain, and France were rushing to colonize it and exploit its resources. The speaker thus compares himself to one of those European powers, eagerly exploring and exploiting a distant, newly discovered country. This suggests something about the power relationships between the speaker and his mistress: he is the explorer, she is the explored; he is the miner, she is mined. The speaker therefore imagines taking possession over his mistress—ruling her, in much the same way as an empire rules its colonies.

• The speaker even refers to his mistress as “My Empirie.” And he imagines his rule over her as a monarchy: she is his “kingdom” and she is best ruled by “one man.”

• Similarly, the speaker insists that his mistress’s naked body is like a “mystic book”: it contains deep truths that only the wise and enlightened should see. This comparison also imposes certain power dynamics on the mistress. He is the wise man; she is the thing that he knows. She is like a book; he is the one who reads it. In other words, by suggesting that her nakedness conceals essential truths, the speaker turns his mistress into an object—and gives himself power over her.

• The speaker’s argument—that nakedness contains a kind of spiritual truth—conceals real discrepancies in power and agency between the speaker and his mistress—differences that the poem affirms. Similarly, his similes and metaphors comparing her to colonial lands and riches also suggest that she is an object, something to possess. The speaker isn’t just interested in seducing his mistress: he also wants to possess her. More precisely, seducing her involves possessing her. He doesn’t imagine sex as an interaction between equals: instead, for him, it’s about establishing and maintaining power over his mistress.

Heaven’s Zone

• “Heaven’s Zone” is a symbol of hope and guidance. Literally, “heaven’s Zone” is the night sky, filled with shining stars. In line 5, the speaker sees the embroidery on his mistress’s “girdle,” or belt, catch the candle light and glimmer. He thinks it looks like the night sky full of stars.

• This associates it with navigation: during the period the poem was written, sailors used the stars to help them navigate. Measuring their position against the stars, they could guide themselves through dark, uncharted waters.

• So, for the speaker, the mistress’s “girdle" guides and orients him, helping him get to where he’s going—or where he wants to go. In other words, it guides him toward his mistress’s naked body.

• As is often the case in John Donne’s poetry, he takes a traditional symbol and pushes it to its limit, turning it into an elaborate, sexual joke.

Harmonious Chime

• The “harmonious chime” that the speaker and his mistress hear in line 9 is a symbol for time—and thus of death, mortality, and the limitations that shape human experience.

• The “harmonious chime” comes from a watch or clock striking the hour. It may be “harmonious”—a sweet sound, pleasant to hear—but it reminds the speaker and maybe his mistress too that time is passing: it’s getting late. And their time together is limited: soon it will be morning and they’ll have to return to their busy lives.

• More broadly, the chime reminds the speaker that he is mortal, that he will die and that therefore he shouldn’t wait around to enjoy things like sex.

• As a symbol for the passing of time, the “harmonious chime” helps the speaker convince his mistress to get undressed and have sex with him. He argues that she shouldn’t be coy, shouldn’t dally around, shouldn’t delay, since life is short and time is flying by.

Shadow

• The “shadow” that appears in line 15 serves as a complex symbol. It symbolizes ignorance, error, and despair. The speaker says that watching his mistress take off her “gown” is like watching the shadow of a cloud retreating from a beautiful meadow. The mistress’s body is like a meadow and the gown is like a shadow that covers it up, diminishing its brightness and beauty. When she takes off her gown, that’s like the moment when the sun comes out on a cloudy day and fills the meadow with light.

• Light is traditionally a symbol of hope and truth. The speaker doesn’t explicitly mention light, but the reader should imagine it bursting onto the meadow. The “shadow” should be understood in contrast with this implicit burst of light. As the mistress takes off her gown, she banishes these bad things and makes space for truth and hope.

• The symbol anticipates some of the speaker’s claims later in the poem—as in line 41, where he claims that women’s bodies are “mystic books” which conceal essential, semi-religious truths. And it contributes to the speaker’s suggestion that his sexual desire is noble: it’s about pursuing truth, not just sex.

White Robes

• In line 19, the speaker imagines “Angels” wearing “white robes”—“white robes” that are like the sheets and blankets on the bed that the speaker shares with his mistress. These “white robes” are symbols of purity and innocence.

• The color “white” has a long association with sexual purity. Imagining “Angels” wearing the color only deepens the association. Since “Angels” are the messengers and servants of God, the colors they wear are closely linked to God Himself.

• The speaker uses the symbol to help convince his mistress to climb in bed and have sex with him. By describing the bedclothes as angelic “white robes,” he suggests that the bed is a pure and innocent place—and that sex itself is innocent. It is not sinful, but sanctioned by God Himself.

• The symbol thus applies not only to the bed—which the speaker suggests is pure and holy—but to the act of sex itself, suggesting that it too is a blameless, innocent act.

• “Gems”—which appear in lines 35 and 37—are symbols of deception.

• The speaker uses this symbol to describe how women dress in fancy, beautiful clothing to deceive and mislead foolish men. They may wear literal gems.

• But more broadly, the “gems” refer to beautiful, ornate items of clothing—beautiful dresses, corsets, and ruffs. They wear these “gems” so that men will “covet” them. In other words, foolish men will be overcome by the beauty of the clothes and jewels that women wear. They will desire those clothes and jewels, instead of trying to see what’s underneath them, the naked body beneath—which, for the speaker, is what really matters.

• Women use “gems” to protect themselves from the prying eyes of men, to distract them, and to deceive them about what really matters, what’s really valuable. “Gems” thus symbolize this deception, and the means that women use to make it happen: the beautiful clothes and jewels they wear to distract and deceive.

Vocabulary

Rest: sleep                                                Defy: Refuse or prevent

Labor: “Labour” means hard work or toil. The speaker doesn’t use the word literally either time he uses it line 2. The first time, “labour” means to have sex. The second time, the uses it as a metaphor: he’s in “labour” because he can’t fall asleep.

Tir’d: A poetic spelling of tired             Standing: Waiting, watching.

Girdle: belt                                             Heaven’s Zone: The starry sky.

Glistering: Glimmering or shimmering.

Unpin: Take off                                      Spangled breastplate: An embroidered bodice or corset.

Harmonious chime: The ringing of a clock or watch to mark the time.

Busk: corset

State: Appearance or condition.

Mead: Meadows or fields.

th’hill’s shadow: The shadow of the hill

Steals: Quietly retreats.

Wiry Coronet: A small crown or garland, worn on women’s heads.

Hairy Diadem: A crown of hair; the hair on the top of the mistress’ head.

Tread: walk

Love’s hallow’d temple: Love’s sacred space. The speaker is saying that the bed he and his mistress share is like a church or sanctuary for love.

Received: Greeted, hosted, entertained

Mahomet’s Paradise: The Heaven promised in Islam. In some traditions, a righteous Muslim is rewarded with virgins in Heaven.

Ill spirits or Evil Sprite: Ghosts or ghouls.

Upright: The speaker is saying that his mistress makes his “flesh” stand “upright”—in other words, she gives him an erection.

Licence: Allow, permit.                            Roving: Roaming

Safeliest: Safest, most secure.                  Mann’d: Ruled, controlled

Bonds: Obligations or commitments        Seal: Imprint or signature.

unbodied: Without a body.

Atlanta’s balls: In Greek myth, the virgin Atlanta rejected all suitors unless they could beat her in a foot race. Hippomenes, came up with a clever solution: he dropped golden apples along the trail during the race, and Atlanta stopped to pick them up. That distraction allowed him to win her hand in marriage. “Atlanta’s balls” are thus the apples thrown in her path to distract her.

lighteth: Discovers, happens on.

lighteth: Discovers, happens on.

Gay coverings: Beautiful or bright covers for a book.

Array’d: Dressed, covered.

Mystic Books: Religious or holy books, like the Bible.

Imputed grace: In Christian theology, imputed grace refers to how Christ’s righteousness can save those who have faith in him; his righteousness becomes theirs. Here, the speaker adapts that concept to suggest that those who are faithful to their mistresses are rewarded by getting to see them naked.

Reveal’d: Naked; unadorned, unhidden.

Liberally: Freely: without shame or reticence.

Midwife: A woman who helps with birth.

White Linen: Bedclothes or undergarments.

Penance: Shame, guilt.

Covering: Clothing or covers to hide the mistress’s naked body.

Form

• “To His Mistress Going to Bed” is a 48-line poem, divided into 4 stanzas. The stanzas are uneven in length: the first is 24 lines long (meaning it makes up half the poem), the second is 8, the third is 14, and the final stanza is just 2 lines. The poem doesn’t follow a set arrangement for the number of lines in each stanza. Instead, it follows the speaker’s inclination—the stanzas swelling and subsiding in response to his passion and enthusiasm.

• However, the speaker does use some of the elements of formal verse. The poem is written in iambic pentameter. And it is generally in rhyming couplets, though at times the speaker uses the same rhyme for several couplets in a row. The poem is thus written in heroic couplets, a form generally reserved for war, politics, or philosophical dispute. That Donne would use such a form for a poem like this—funny and seductive—is part of the joke. Using a form like this, the speaker suggests that his erotic desire is as important as a heroic deed or a great battle.

• This poem is also sometimes titled “Elegy II.” Elegy was associated with a specific kind of meter: elegiac meter. Donne attempts to imitate that meter—and the classical poets who used it. This was a popular pursuit in the 1580s and 1590s, when Donne wrote the poem.

Meter

• “To His Mistress Going to Bed” is written in iambic pentameter. Readers can hear this rhythm in line 9:

Unlace | yourself, | for that | harmon- | ious chime

• Donne is famous for what some consider his bad meter. “To His Mistress Going to Bed” contains plenty of examples of Donne’s loose, rough meter. Its lines are full of unexpected and disruptive metrical substitutions.

• Donne’s language can be frustrating to readers with strict expectations about meter. This is partly due to his syntax—his sentences can sound a bit contorted:

Until | I la- | bour, I | in la- | bour lie.

• The line is a good line of iambic pentameter. Notice, however, how the meter emphasizes the second “I” but not the first. On one hand, this might throw a reader off balance.

• Donne’s meter can sometimes be distractingly unusual. But it also reflects the speaker’s state of mind—so passionate that he can barely keep his poem in control

Rhyme Scheme

• “To His Mistress Going to Bed” is written in rhyming couplets. Its rhyme scheme is thus, generally: AABBCCDD …etc.

• Donne’s poems can famously seem a bit sloppy in matters of meter and rhyme—though many readers interpret this as an enjoyable, roughhewn quality. Many of the rhymes reflect that quality.

• Many of the poem’s rhymes are strong and direct.

• At one point, the speaker uses the same rhyme sound in back-to-back-to-back couplets, in lines 29-34. This creates an intense run-on effect, as if the speaker has gotten caught up in one particular line of argument.

• Some of the poem’s rhymes can be considered slant rhymes This happens in lines 41-42, with their rhyme between “we” and “dignify.” All of this reflects a kind of sloppiness with the rhyme: the speaker isn’t particularly interested in tightly controlling the rhymes. He’s focused on other things(his intense erotic desire for his mistress). The poem’s rhyme scheme reflects this intensity and passion of the speaker’s desire.

Setting

• “To His Mistress Going to Bed” is set in a bedroom—a warm, intimate domestic space that the speaker and his “mistress” share. It’s a place where they get dressed and undressed, sleep, and have sex. The speaker doesn’t tell the reader much about the room.

• Having a private room at all, however, was a considerable luxury during the period the poem was written, so the reader should imagine the speaker and his mistress as well-to-do, if not aristocratic.

• When the poem occurs, it’s nighttime and the lights are dim. The reader should imagine the space lit by candlelight, so the mistress’s garments, her “glistering” girdle and her “spangled breastplate” catch the light from the candles and glimmer in the half-dark. All of this contributes to a sense of intimacy. Though the speaker is full of jokes and specious arguments as to why his mistress should have sex with him, he makes these jokes in an intimate domestic space that they share. As a result, these jokes feel different from what he does at a crowded tavern. The jokes are part of the dynamic of their relationship: the reader might imagine them as part of a steady back and forth between speaker and mistress.

Literary Context

• It was most likely written between 1593-1596, when Donne was a young man. His early poems are often energetic and full of erotic desire, while his later poems focus on religious issues (though they too have plenty of sexual tension in them).

• At the time that Donne wrote it, English poetry was in the midst of a fad for love poetry. “To His Mistress Going to Bed” has a lot in common with the poems written by Spenser, Shakespeare, and Sidney. Like their poems, it performs a kind of blazon—albeit, one focused on the mistress’s clothing.  And the poem shares some of the gender dynamics of other Renaissance love poems: it too features a male speaker addressing a coy, inaccessible woman—after all, the speaker needs to convince her to take off her clothes such like “Atlanta’s balls” in line 36.

• But the poem also diverges from its contemporaries in an important way: it is much more honest about the speaker’s sexual desire. “To His Mistress Going to Bed” is direct and frank: the speaker is open and unguarded as he expresses his sexual desire. In turn, that reflects John Donne’s position as the leader of a group of poets called the metaphysical poets. The metaphysicals took existing tropes and cliches and extended and expanded them, sometimes to absurd degrees. Here, Donne takes the usual moves of the Renaissance love poet and exposes the intense sexual desire barely concealed beneath.

Historical Context

• “To His Mistress Going to Bed” was written in England during the 1590s. The 1590s were a complicated time in English history and English literature. The decade is often considered the golden period of Elizabethan literature—with plays like Romeo and Juliet first performed and major poems like The Faerie Queene first published.

• Politically, it was also a time of relative peace and prosperity. In 1588, Queen Elizabeth defeated a huge Spanish fleet, the Spanish Armada. That gave the country some safety and security from foreign threats. But it also exposed the country to internal insecurities. After all, Queen Elizabeth was aging and unmarried: she had ruled the country successfully for many years, but she hadn’t produced an heir. So as the decade progressed, there were serious questions about who would rule England after her death.

• The reprieve after the Spanish Armada was defeated allowed poets to turn inward, to focus on matters of the heart. But the anxieties about what would happen after Queen Elizabeth’s death were never far from their minds—and created serious questions about female sexuality, independence, and political power. These questions often show up in the poetry of the period—even poems that are not directly related to English politics.