Alchemical augmentation and primordial fire in Donne's "The Dissolution".(Critical Essay)

That John Donne's "The Dissolution" has been generally ignored is illustrated by his biographers, Robert C. Bald and John Carey, neither of whom comments on the poem. (1) Granted, it appears in only a few manuscripts; (2) nevertheless, one would expect its sexual and alchemical references to inspire more debate, if nothing else, in response to Jay Arnold Levine's interpretation published some forty years ago. Levine argues that "The Dissolution" is a twofold elegy, both funereal and erotic; and, moreover, that its true subject is sexual impotence, a topic repugnant to Renaissance society. (3) As such, he claims, it joins certain verses by Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, Thomas Campion, and Mathurin Regnier--all (to a greater or lesser extent) considered to be pornographic and all modeled after Ovid's Amores. (4)

Though Levine studies many of the hermetic analogues in Donne's poem, he fails to address the range of possibilities available from the broader patterns of occult doctrine and early medical theories. One example is the solution to the speaker's supposed impotence (alchemically the result of female moisture overwhelming male fire). Though Levine's interpretation applies in terms of human sexuality and in terms of the alchemical process, the consequent "solution," at least the alchemical sense of successful completion of the opus, is somehow missing. Ultimately, he leaves us with an understanding of Donne's resolution only as it applies to human sexuality. This incompleteness is not entirely his fault, for Donne has structured his poem in such a way that only the adept will penetrate his otherwise inscrutable secret.

Perhaps this obscurity was Donne's way of appealing to certain understanding readers, to those members of his coterie who were likewise intrigued with theories of alchemy and doctrines of the Cabala. (5) As such, even modern readers possessing special knowledge can participate in the poem's semantics. Levine, however, interprets only certain selected codes and ignores others without which the triumph of Donne's speaker (in successfully completing the opus) cannot be understood. In order to begin to retrieve this necessary information, we must revisit the poem.

Donne's irregular rhyme scheme implies a tripartite structure, which also begins to articulate the problem. The poem consists of twenty-four lines divided into three unequal parts: the first eight lines of his elegy (abcdbacd) are followed by seven (eeffegg) and conclude with nine (hhiijkkjj). This rather loose structure suggests the formulaic problem/solution/results, inviting us to understand his poem accordingly. However, we do not find this to be the case. Rather, the first eight lines cite a problem which is further detailed (according to its symptoms) in the next seven. Donne's "solution" falls between the cracks when he moves directly from problem/problem to "results" of some obscured solution in the last nine lines. This leaves us in a quandary, having to determine for ourselves what happened to provoke this change or transmutation. Undoubtedly, some of Donne's contemporaries, those understanding readers who knew the language of alchemy, discerned the implied procedure. Modern readers, however, must exert special effort in order to rediscover it.

Though some critics have complained about Levine's interpretation--and especially about the subject of impotence--few or none seem to have countered with serious alternatives. (6) I propose to do that here, studying a wider range of sources influencing Donne, including the philosophies of certain pre-Socratic Greeks and those Medieval and Renaissance alchemists whose theories were based upon them. Also, I shall consider certain scientific theories that, though not normally considered hermetic, nevertheless influenced Donne's poem. (7) Altogether, these sources provide some valuable insights.

We begin by tracing the lines of Donne's alchemy back to its origins, even to Heraclitus "the Dark" and Hippocrates, neither of whom is considered a Hermetic thinker per se, but both of whom were fascinated by riddles--so much so that they actually sought out obscure ways to express secrets that might otherwise seem too clear. (8) Both avoided clear-cut answers in favor of puzzles that tease and challenge the mind. In this sense, they were precursors not only to Medieval and Renaissance alchemy but also to "metaphysical wit." Donne was naturally drawn to them.

As mentioned above, the solution to the riddle of "The Dissolution," implied between sections two and three, is never clearly stated and, as such, becomes a missing piece of the puzzle; but without this piece, Donne's poem makes little or no sense. In order to find it, we must begin at the beginning, with "Shee'is dead." As we all know, a common sense of "die" during the English Renaissance was to experience sexual orgasm. (9) "And all which die / To their first Elements resolve," the poem goes on to read (lines 1-2). Resolving to first elements, as Donne means it here, is exchanging all things for various forms of fire, the primordial element. He learned this principle from Heraclitus, whose idea of fire is central to the poem.