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Of Fire, Wind, Water, & Earth 1
An Introduction
Early modern British poetry often seems to have two basic underlying themes—love
(a term which includes both honest, virtuous love; unrequited feelings; lust; and so forth)
and religion. With religion comes a preoccupation with death, questions of morality, and
attempts to legitimize certain ways of looking at the world; religion does not necessarily
abandon love either, merely alters the perception of it. This collection focuses in on a single
motif—the elements—that spans across the two themes and bridges them together.
The elements—fire, earth, water, and air—are a fundamental part of the world. They
are the building blocks of nature, the foundations of life and the world. Further, the
elements are inherently tied into a cycle. Fire feeds on earth and air, but is easily
extinguished by water; earth is nurtured by water, erodes beneath air, and can either be
destroyed by fire or can in turn put out the flames; air and water connect together to create
weather systems, and are their own individual cycle within a cycle. As none of the elements
can exist without the others, they are an interesting motif in poetry.
This collection begins with James Graham’s “In Praise of Women,” which harkens
back to the Biblical imagery of Man’s creation; “so framed he Man, of elements combined /
to excel the substance when he was refined” (Graham 8-‐9). In Genesis, God creates Adam
from clay—which is a combination of earth and water, tempered by fire—and creates Eve
from Adam, so there is an established tradition of humanity being derived from the
elements.
Following on the heels of that, the poems use the elements in comparisons, as ways
to highlight the depth and intensity of love, or in describing a loved one. Michael Drayton’s
Of Fire, Wind, Water, & Earth 2
“To the Moone,” uses the four humours as well as the four elements. The humours involve
the levels of four bodily fluids—yellow bile, which represents choler; black bile, which is
melancholie; blood, which represents the sanguine; and phlegm. The humours were thought
to influence and control the emotional and physical states of a person; too much black bile
resulted in depression and melancholy, while too much yellow bile creates higher levels of
rage and anger. The humours and the elements mirror each other—they are both
fundamental substances that humans and the world are built upon.
The last three poems of the collection, beginning with Donne’s “Holy Sonnet V” and
ending with his “The Dissolution.” These poems transition towards the religious and
metaphysical, where the elements become less about their individual divisions into fire,
water, earth, and air—they are at the core essence of humanity and nature, and as Donne
says: “and all which die / to their first elements resolve” (“The Dissolution” 1-‐2). The
collection comes to its conclusion following the cycle of the elements—just as they are at
the core of creation, they are also at its end.
Of Fire, Wind, Water, & Earth 3
In Praise of Women James Graham, Marquess of Montrose
When Heaven’s great Jove had made the world’s round frame, Earth, water, air, and fire, above the same, The rolling orbs, the planets, spheres1, and all The lesser creatures in the earth’s vast ball,
5 But, as a curious alchemist still draws From grosser metals finer, and from those Extracts another, and from that again Another that doth far excel the same, So framed he Man, of elements combined
10 To excel the substance whence he was refined. But that pure creature, drawn from his breast, Excelleth him as he excelled the rest, Or as a stubborn stalk whereon there grows A dainty lily or a fragrant rose:
15 The stalk may boast and set its virtues forth, But, take away the flower, where is its worth? But yet, fair ladies, you must know, Howbeit I do adore you so, Reciprocal your flowers must prove,
20 Or my ambition scorns to love. A noble soul doth still abhor To strike but where ‘tis conqueror.
1 Spheres refer to the earth, the heavens, and the space between them, in which celestial beings such as angels dwell. A sphere could also be one of the “concentric globes formerly supposed to be formed by the four elements” (“sphere” def. 3).
Of Fire, Wind, Water, & Earth 4
Amour 27 Michael Drayton
My Love makes hote the fire whose heat is spent, The water moisture from my teares deriueth, And my strong sighes the ayres weake force receiueth: Thus love, tears, sighes, maintaine each one his element.
5 The fire, unto my love, compare a painted fire, The water, to my teares as drops to Oceans be, The ayre, unto my sighes as Eagle to the flie, The passions of dispaire but ioyes to my desire. Onely my love is in the fire ingraued,
10 Onely my teares by Oceans may be gessed, Onely my sighes are by the ayre expressed; Yet fire, water, ayre, of nature not depriued. Whilst fire, water, ayre, twixt heauen and earth shal be, My loue, my teares, my sighes, extinguisht cannot be.
Of Fire, Wind, Water, & Earth 5
Proof to no Purpose Robert Herrick
You see this gentle streame, that glides, Shov’d on, by quick succeeding tides: Trie if this sober streame you can Follow to th’ wilder ocean:
5 And see, if there it keeps unspent In that congesting2 element. Next, from that world of waters, then By poares3 and cavernes back agen Induc’t that indultrate4 same
10 Streame to the spring from whence it came. This with a wonder when ye do, As easie, and else easier too: Then may ye recollect the graines Of my particular remaines;
15 After a thousand lusters hurld, By ruffling winds, about the world.
2 Congesting is the act of something—the element of water in this case—being brought together or collected (“congest” def. 1). In this phrase it refers to the ocean. 3 Poares is likely drawn from “power.” It refers to the transportation of the stream, “by poares and cavernes,” and could mean either the act of travel itself, or of travel by and “of a boat” (“power” def. 2a, 2b). 4 Indulterate probably derives from “indolent” meaning “slothful, lazy, idle” (“indolent” def. 2). The subject of the phrase is the “streame,” which earlier, in the first two lines is referred to as “gentle” and as being “shov’d on;” this fits with the description of the stream as idolent now.
Of Fire, Wind, Water, & Earth 6
To the Moone Michael Drayton
Phæbe5 look downe, and here behold in mee, The elements within thy sphere inclosed, How kindly Nature plac’d them under thee, And in my world, see how they are disposed;
5 My hope is earth, the lowest, cold and dry, The grosser mother of deepe melancholie, Water my teares, coold with humidity, Wan, flegmatick6, inclind by nature wholie; My sighs, the ayre, hote, moyst, ascending hier,
10 Subtile of sanguine, dy’de in my harts dolor, My thoughts, they be the element of fire, Hote, dry, and piercing, still inclind to choller, Thine eye the Orbe unto all these, from whence, Proceeds th’ effects of powerfull influence.
5 Phæbe—or Phoebe—is a classical allusion to the goddess of the moon, whether it is Artemis, Diana, or the moon itself. 6 Flegmatick is a version of “phlegmatic,” referring to a person with a “an excess of phlegm” (“phlegm” def. A1). In addition to the four elements, this poem also includes the four humours: phlegm, blood, choler, and black bile. Any inbalance created by an excess or deficiency of these humours was thought to result in mental and physical problems.
Of Fire, Wind, Water, & Earth 7
Sonnet LV Edmund Spenser
So oft as I her beauty doe behold, And therewith doe her cruelty compare, I mauaile7 of what substance was the mould The which her made attonce8 so cruell faire.
5 Not earth; for her high thoughts more heauenly are, not water; for her loue doth burne like fyre: not ayre; for she is not so light or rare, not fyre; for she doth friese with faint desire. Then needs another Element inquire
10 Whereof she mote9 be made; that is the skye. For so to the heuen her haughty lookes aspire: And eke her mind is pure immortall hye. Then sith to heauen ye lykened are the best, By lyke in mery as in all the rest:
7 Mauaile is most likely a form of “marvel,” using the definition “to wonder or be astonished at,” (“marvel” def. 3). 8 Attonce: at once. 9 By definition, “mote” is either “one of the innumerable minute specks seen floating in a beam of light,” or the “movement of a celestial object across the sky” (“mote” n.1, n.3). Either could be applied here, although it is more likely the second.
Of Fire, Wind, Water, & Earth 8
Holy Sonnet V John Donne
I am a little world made cunningly Of elements, and an angelic sprite; But black sin hath betray’d to endless night My world’s both parts, and, O, both parts must die.
5 You which beyond that heaven which was most high Have found new spheres, and of new land can write, Pour new seas in my eyes, that so I might Drown my world with my weeeping earnestly, Or wash it if it must be drown’d no more.
10 But, O, it must be burnt; alas! The fire Of lust and envy burnt it heretofore, And made it fouler; let their flames retire, And burn me, O Lord, with a fiery seal Of Thee and Thy house, which doth in eating heal.
Of Fire, Wind, Water, & Earth 9
To finde God Robert Herrick
Weigh me the fire; or canst thou find A way to measure out the wind; Distinguish all those floods at are Mixt in that watrie theater;
5 And tast thou them as saltlesse there, As in their channell first they were. Tell me the people that do keep Within the kingdomes of the deep; Or fetch me back that cloud againe,
10 Beshiver’d into seeds of raine; Tell me the motes, dust, sands, and speares Of corn, when Summer shakes his ears; Shew me that world of starres, and whence They noiselesse spill their influence;
15 This if thou canst; then shew me Him That rides the glorious Cherubim10.
10 Cherubim refers to a type of angel, “reputed to excel specifically in knowledge,” and is the most common representation of angel (“cherub” def . 2b). The figure of Cupid is also usually depicted as a cherub.
Of Fire, Wind, Water, & Earth 10
The Dissolution John Donne
She’s dead; and all which die To their first elements resolve; And we were mutual elements to us, And made of one another.
5 My body then doth hers involve, And those things whereof I consist hereby In me abundant grow, and burdenous, And nourish not, but smother. My fire of passion, sighs of air,
10 Water of tears, and earthy sad despair, Which my materials be, But near worn out by love’s security, She, to my loss, doth by her death repair, And I might live long wretched so,
15 But that my fire doth with my fuel grow. Now, as those active kings Whose foreign conquest treasure brings, Receive more, and spend more, and soonest break, This—which I am amazed that I can speak—
20 This death, hath with my store My use increased. And so my soul, more earnestly released, Will outstrip hers; as bullets flown before A later bullet may o’ertake, the powder being more.
Of Fire, Wind, Water, & Earth 11
Works Cited
Donne, John. “The Dissolution.” The Poems of John Donne. Ed. E. K. Chambers.
London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1896.
Donne, John. “Holy Sonnet V.” The Poems of John Donne. Ed. E. K. Chambers.
London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1896.
Drayton, Michael. “Amour 27.” Minor Poems of Michael Drayton. Ed. Cyril Brett. Oxford: At
the Clarendon Press, 1907.
Drayton, Michael. “To the Moone.” Minor Poems of Michael Drayton. Ed. Cyril Brett. Oxford:
At the Clarendon Press, 1907.
Graham, James. “In Praise of Women.” Scottish Poetry of the Seventeenth Century: Sir Robert
Aytoun, Sir David Murray, Sir Robert Ker, Sir William Alexander, William Drummond,
The Marquis of Montrose, The Semples of Beltrees. Ed. George Eyre-‐Todd. Glasgow:
William Hodge & Co., 1895.
Herrick, Robert. “Proof to no Purpose.” The Lyric Poems of Robert Herrick. Ed. Ernest
Rhys. London: J. M. Dent & Co., 1896.
Herrick, Robert. “To finde God.” The Lyric Poems of Robert Herrick. Ed. Ernest
Rhys. London: J. M. Dent & Co., 1896.
OED Online. September 2012. Oxford University Press. 7 December 2012
<http://www.oed.com/ >.
Spenser, Edmund. “Sonnet LV.” Spenser’s Minor Poems. Ed. Ernest De Selincourt. Oxford: At
the Claredon Press, 1910 [1970].