<P> Throughout the poem, Donne's male speaker urges his mistress into bed . Donne's speaker fervently describes undressing and caressing his mistress, and at the end, the speaker reveals that he is fully unclothed and erect . The process of disrobing is followed from top to toe, centred on the belly and vulva, and each stage compares the beauty of dress as external decoration with the natural beauty of the undressed woman . </P> <P> Donne's poem reinvents Petrarchan poetic conventions, which figured around the despair and heartache brought about by unattainable love . Donne's "Elegy XIX" was also influenced by Ovid's "Elegies", in which Ovid used wit and detachment in describing the male lover's aggressive pursuit of women ." By combining Petrarch's technique of "wooing from afar" with Ovid's sexually aggressive language and style, Donne creates a parody of the conventional love sonnet, and an early specimen of libertine poetry . </P> <P> Ironically, Donne's speaker uses a blazon, or a record of virtues and excellencies to describe his mistress disrobing (Lines 5--18). While standard Petrarchan blazons were used to list a woman's honourable attributes, such as her beauty or chasteness, Donne's poem "removes (the) woman from the pedestal on which she had been adored", placing an erotic emphasis on an otherwise virtuous list . Instead of speaking of his mistress's virtues, Donne's speaker focuses solely on her appearance, which demonstrates that the speaker is looking for a coital experience with love . </P> <P> The poem is peppered with metaphorical allusion, used to further describe sexual imagery . In Line 21, Donne refers to "Mahomets Paradice", which was peopled with beautiful women ready to satisfy the carnal desires of the male inhabitants . Similarly, Donne mentions that "Gems which you women use / Are like Atalanta's balls, cast in men's views" (35--6); in Greek mythology, Atalanta rejected all suitors who could not defeat her in a race; Hippomenes eventually defeated her by dropping apples along the race trail, which Atalanta stopped to pick up . Donne's connection between religious allusion and eroticism creates a paradox, which suggests that Donne sees physical love as being just as necessary as love for the divine . </P>

Elegy 8 to his mistress going to bed