To ease the strain of pandemic restrictions, I was recently called on to recommend a poem. I chose “The Undertaking” of John Donne. I want to say here why. Briefly:
- The poem (which I transcribe below) has a sound that impressed me when I first read it, more than thirty years ago.
- The poem alludes to ideals:
- of recognizing what is good for its own sake, and
- of climbing a rung or two on Diotima’s ladder of love.
- The sound of Donne’s poem may seduce one into thinking the ideals worthy.
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I also indulge myself here in reminiscences not obviously relevant to “The Undertaking.” They do conclude with my sitting down to read Donne for myself. (Note added November 3, 2025.)
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Diotima’s ladder, or stairway, is recounted by Socrates in Plato’s Symposium (211c, here in the translation of Jowett, which is the one I read at school, though it may not be the most faithful; the bullets and insertions from the Greek text are mine):
And the true order of going, or being led by another, to the things of love (τὰ ἐρωτικά), is to begin from the beauties of earth and mount upwards for the sake of that other beauty, using these as steps (οἳ ἐπαναβαθμοί) only, and from
- one going on to
- two, and from two to
- all fair forms (τὰ καλὰ σώματα), and from fair forms to
- fair practices (τὰ καλὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα), and from fair practices to
- fair notions (τὰ καλὰ μαθήματα), until from fair notions he arrives at
- the notion of absolute beauty, and at last knows what the essence of beauty is (ὃ ἔστι καλόν).
Two books that were my mother’s
Polytropy 