Blog Post 4: The Indifferent by John Donne

After reading through a few poems by John Donne I was drawn to one of his poems titled “The Indifferent”. Simply going off the title I assumed it would be about people nonchalantly sinning, however the topic within this poem takes on a different meaning. As the first stanza delves into how John Donne can love almost any kind of woman as the first verse is “I can love both fair and brown”. Each verse after that further accentuates how he can love any woman, but the last verse within the first stanza implies the overall topic of the poem, “I can love any, so she be not true”. I believe that John Donne would love almost any woman as long as they aren’t true to him or faithful. I would assume that the relationship John Donne is talking about would be akin to a prostitute or a one night stand, also meaning he could make someone unfaithful. In the beginning of the second stanza he asks “Will no other vice content you?”, almost as is he is having a conversation with one of his one night stands. I also interpreted John Donne’s third, fourth, and fifth verses to be an attempt to persuade his “acquaintance” to settle for being unfaithful rather than looking for other vices. Throughout the rest of the second stanza John Donne petitions his acquaintance to simply love him for now and let him go once the deed is done. However, I am perplexed by the third stanza as I believe John Donne describes what would happen if Venus heard about his idea of woman being unfaithful. The final verse within this stanza is “You shall be true to them who are false to you”, and although I am not entirely sure what is meant by this, I believe John Donne implies that others with not accept this idea even if it is true. I found John Donne’s poetry to be very enlightening, ranging over a broad amount of topics from lying bums to chasing woman. I shall also continue to read more of his poetry to discover the profound ideas that litter his poems.