In “An Anatomy of the World,” John Donne discusses the death of his friend’s daughter
and how she represents the furthering decay of the world as a result. He proves that the world has been decaying since the beginning of time, that the girl in the poem represents the loss of all
virtue and hope in the world, and that the only hope for the world is the role of art as a way to
commemorate ideals and to cultivate virtue.
Donne proves that the world is in decay and has been so since the beginning of time. He
begins by saying that this decay began with mankind specifically. This started when Eve
succumbed to temptation and then caused her husband to do the same. Donne sums this up
saying, “For that first marriage was our funeral;/ One woman at one blow, then kill’d us all/ and
singly, one by one, they kill us now.”1 Ever since Adam and Eve corrupted themselves, there has
been a continuation of this through generations. Proof of our decay is the shortness of our lives
and the decrease in our size as time goes on. Donne shows the shortness of life through, “Alas,
we scarce live long enough to try/ Whether a true made clock run right, or lie./ Our grandsires
talk of yesterday with sorrow,/ And for our children we reserve tomorrow.”2 Men no longer live
long enough to test a clock, but save their belongings and the future for their offspring. This,
however, did not used to be true, but men could live long enough that “if a slow-pac’d star had
stol’n away/ From the observer’s marking, he might stay/ Two or three hundred years to see’t
again.”3 Men used to live longer than the stars and long enough to see the future, but now they
decay so soon they are “scarce our fathers’ shadows cast at noon.”4 Even men’s stature has
declined as they decay. Donne says that it used to be that if a man went astray, not even a whale or an elephant could destroy him, but now “even the fairies and the pygmies seem as credible.”5
Donne states that man is decaying and evidence for this is their increasing shortness of life and
smaller statures as time goes on.
Due to the decay of man, Donne then concludes that this is what has caused the decay of
the whole world. He says, “Then, as mankind, so is the world’s whole frame/ Quite out of joint,
almost created lame,/ For, before God had made up all the rest,/ Corruption ent’red, and deprav’d
the best.”6 He is saying that because mankind had been corrupted and rejected God, their decay
began, and therefore the whole world is in decay. Donne believed in the theory of microcosm,
which is the idea that human nature contains all the other natures that exist in the world and
provides a fill for the gap between God and nature. Donne continues his thoughts on microcosm
by saying, “It (corruption) seiz’d the angels, and then first of all/ The world did in her cradle take
a fall/ And turn’d her brains, and took a general maim,/ wronging each point of the universal
frame./ The noblest part, man, felt it first, and then/ Both beasts and plants, Curs’d in the curse of
man./ So did the world from the first hour of decay.”7 The decay of man reached into every
element of the world, from the angels to the plants. Donne then says evidence of this decay is
seen through the weakness of the seasons and the loss of man’s wit. He says, “And freely men
confess that this world’s spent,/ When in the planets and the firmament/ They seek so many new;
they see that this/ Is crumbled out again to his atomies./ ‘Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone,/
All just supply and all relation.”8 Men recognize that the world is in decay because nothing
seems to fit together and they cannot understand the elements and the make up of the world.
Because man is in decay, the world is also, due to Donne’s belief in the theory of microcosm.
However, though the world is in decay, there was a hope for the world until the death of
Donne’s friend’s fifteen-year-old daughter, Elizabeth Dury. Donne idealizes the girl in the poem
to represent all the hope and virtue in the world. Donne says the girl was “She, of whom
th’ancient seem’d to prophesy,/ When they call’d virtues by the name of she;/ She in whom
virtue was so much refin’d,/ That for alloy unto so pure a mind/ She took the weaker sex; she
that could drive/ The poisonous tincture, and the stain of Eve,/ Out of her thoughts, and deeds,
and purify/ All, by a true religious alchemy.”9 The girl has the power to escape the trap of Eve
and therefore the destruction of the world and to remain pure and virtuous. She represents
everything the world is missing to prevent decay.
When the girl is gone from the world, then the world is wounded. Donne says that “She,
She is dead; she’s dead: when thou knowest this,/ Thou knowest how poor a trifling thing man
is.”10 When the girl died, the world recognized its own corruption. Donne says that when she
died, the world, “joy’d, it mourn’d;/ And, as men think, that agues physic are,/ And th’ ague
being spent, give over care,/ So thou, sick world, mistak’st thyself to be/ Well, when alas, thou’rt
in a lethargy.”11 When the girl has died, the Earth tries to deny the thought that it is in decay, but
it cannot. Donne compares this to kingdoms where the prince is doubtful of future heirs and is
sick. No one talks about the sickness because they refuse to acknowledge the fear of the decay
of his lineage.12 Thus is so with the death of this “queen.”13 The Earth does not talk about her
death and her decay as the months wear on as though it were blasphemy. Donne states that the
girl is what was keeping the Earth at a standstill away from extreme decay. He says after she dies
that, “The cement which did faithfully compact/ And glue all virtues, now resolv'’d and slack’d.”14 Donne says the girl was the “intrinsic balm and the “preservation” of the world and
without her everything is going to go to pieces.15 Donne says, “Her death hath taught us dearly
that thou (the world) art/ Corrupt and mortal in they purest part.”16 Her death has made obvious
the decay of the world by taking away the example of virtue that kept it inspired and held
together.
Without the girl’s inspiration and preservation of the world, Donne can only offer a small
sense of hope. This hope is in art as a way to portray the ideal of the girl and to somewhat
preserve her memory as an example of virtue. Art’s purpose, according to Donne, is to
commemorate ideals and to cultivate virtue. In the poem, Donne compares capturing the girl
through art to her ghost living in the world. He says, “Though she which did inanimate and fill/
The world, be gone, yet in this last long night,/ Her ghost doth walk; that is a glimmering light,/
A faint weak love of virtue, and of good,/ Reflects from her on them which understood/ Her
worth; and though she have shut in all day,/ The twilight of her memory doth stay.”17 The ghost
that remains is her memory that is honored through art and poetry and offers a glimmering hope
of preservation for the world. Donne states that he will try to keep her alive to preserve the world
when he says, “Thy intrinsic balm, and thy preservation,/ Can never be renew’d, thou never live,/
I (since no man can make thee live) will try,/ What we may gain by thy anatomy.”18 Donne is
saying that he will try to keep the intrinsic balm (the girl) alive through his anatomy of her in this
poem. Donne describes the girl as “the best and first original of all fair copies” who is the
“steward of fate” with “rich eyes and breast.”19 She bestowed spice on the Indies and is compared to gold. In these statements Donne compares the girl to several ideals of perfection,
when truth, the girl could not have been perfect.20 Donne is creating an ideal of perfection for the
world. As further proof of Donne’s will to capture the perfect ideal of the girl, he is quoted in
response to criticism of hyperbole of compliment by saying that he described the idea of a
woman and not reality. Donne believes that through art, ideal examples are to be presented to
represent ideals and to inspire the world.
John Donne proves that due to the fall of mankind, the world is in decay. He states that
the loss of Elizabeth Dury represents a loss of hope in the world. And he shows that poetry
should be used as a way to commemorate ideals and cultivate virtue. In “An Anatomy of the
World,” Donne tries to commemorate the ideal of Elizabeth Dury as a way to cultivate virtue in
the world, which has been decaying since the beginning of the fall of man.
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