“Air and Angels” Introduction

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“Air and Angels” Summary

“Air and Angels” Themes

• 

  Spiritual and Physical Love

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• 

  Women's Love vs. Men's Love

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Air and Angels”

• Lines 1-6

  Twice or thrice had I lov'd thee,
  Before I knew thy face or name;
  So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame
  Angels affect us oft, and worshipp'd be;
           Still when, to where thou wert, I came,
  Some lovely glorious nothing I did see.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 7-14

           But since my soul, whose child love is,
  Takes limbs of flesh, and else could nothing do,
           More subtle than the parent is
  Love must not be, but take a body too;
           And therefore what thou wert, and who,
                  I bid Love ask, and now
  That it assume thy body, I allow,
  And fix itself in thy lip, eye, and brow.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 15-20

  Whilst thus to ballast love I thought,
  And so more steadily to have gone,
  With wares which would sink admiration,
  I saw I had love's pinnace overfraught;
           Ev'ry thy hair for love to work upon
  Is much too much, some fitter must be sought;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 21-25

           For, nor in nothing, nor in things
  Extreme, and scatt'ring bright, can love inhere;
           Then, as an angel, face, and wings
  Of air, not pure as it, yet pure, doth wear,
           So thy love may be my love's sphere;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 26-28

                  Just such disparity
  As is 'twixt air and angels' purity,
  'Twixt women's love, and men's, will ever be.

  

  

  

  

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“Air and Angels” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Conceit

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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• Personification

  

  

  

  

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“Air and Angels” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Thee, Thou, Thy
• Affect
• Wert
• Else could nothing do
• Subtle
• Bid
• Assume
• Fix
• Ballast
• Pinnace
• Overfraught
• Scatt'ring bright
• Then, as an angel, face, and wings / Of air, not pure as it, yet pure, doth wear
• Sphere
• Disparity
• 'Twixt

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Air and Angels”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Air and Angels” Speaker

“Air and Angels” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Air and Angels”

More “Air and Angels” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem Aloud — Listen to a reading of the poem.

  • A Portrait of Donne — See a famous portrait of Donne in which he poses as the ideal Renaissance lover.

  • A Brief Biography — Learn more about Donne's life and work via the Poetry Foundation.

  • Donne's Legacy — Read a review of a recent Donne biography that discusses his enduring influence.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by John Donne

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  • A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

  • A Valediction: Of Weeping

  • Elegy V: His Picture

  • Holy Sonnet 10: Death, be not proud

  • Holy Sonnet 14: Batter my heart, three-person'd God

  • Holy Sonnet 1: Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?

  • Holy Sonnet 6: This is my play's last scene

  • Holy Sonnet 7: At the round earth's imagined corners

  • Hymn to God My God, in My Sickness

  • No Man Is an Island

  • Song: Go and catch a falling star

  • The Apparition

  • The Canonization

  • The Dream

  • The Ecstasy

  • The Flea

  • The Good-Morrow

  • The Relic

  • The Sun Rising

  • The Triple Fool

  • To His Mistress Going to Bed