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John Donne does not whisper when he wants something. In “To His Mistress Going to Bed” he speaks with the urgency of a man who has already decided the night will end one way. Written in the 1590s, long before he became a preacher, the poem is one of the boldest seduction pieces in English. It is frank, witty, and almost breathless in its progress from clothed body to naked discovery.
The Complete Poem
Come, Madam, come, all rest my powers defy,
John Donne
Until I labour, I in labour lie.
The foe oft-times having the foe in sight,
Is tir’d with standing though he never fight.
Off with that girdle, like heaven’s Zone glistering,
But a far fairer world encompassing.
Unpin that spangled breastplate which you wear,
That th’eyes of busy fools may be stopped there.
Unlace yourself, for that harmonious chime
Tells me from you that now it is bed time.
Off with that happy busk, which I envy,
That still can be, and still can stand so nigh.
Your gown going off, such beauteous state reveals,
As when from flowery meads th’hill’s shadow steals.
Off with that wiry Coronet and shew
The hairy Diadem which on you doth grow:
Now off with those shoes, and then safely tread
In this love’s hallow’d temple, this soft bed.
In such white robes, heaven’s Angels used to be
Received by men; Thou Angel bring’st with thee
A heaven like Mahomet’s Paradise; and though
Ill spirits walk in white, we easily know
By this these Angels from an evil sprite,
Those set our hairs, but these our flesh upright.
Licence my roving hands, and let them go
Before, behind, between, above, below.
O my America! my new-found-land,
My kingdom, safeliest when with one man mann’d,
My Mine of precious stones, My Empirie,
How blest am I in this discovering thee!
To enter in these bonds is to be free;
Then where my hand is set, my seal shall be.
Full nakedness! All joys are due to thee,
As souls unbodied, bodies uncloth’d must be,
To taste whole joys. Gems which you women use
Are like Atlanta’s balls, cast in men’s views,
That when a fool’s eye lighteth on a Gem,
His earthly soul may covet theirs, not them.
Like pictures, or like books’ gay coverings made
For lay-men, are all women thus array’d;
Themselves are mystic books, which only we
(Whom their imputed grace will dignify)
Must see reveal’d. Then since that I may know,
As liberally as to a Midwife, shew
Thy self: cast all, yea, this white linen hence,
There is no penance due to innocence.
To teach thee, I am naked first; why then
What needst thou have more covering than a man.
The poem belongs to Donne’s group of Elegies. It was not printed in his lifetime and circulated in manuscript among a knowing audience. Its directness still startles.
Summary
The speaker addresses his mistress and urges her to undress. He begins with a playful complaint: he cannot rest until they make love. He compares himself to a soldier who grows tired of waiting once the enemy is in sight. Then he moves item by item through her clothing: girdle, breastplate, busk, gown, coronet, shoes. Each garment is removed with a compliment or a witty aside. Once she stands in white linen he compares her to an angel bringing a paradise. He asks permission for his hands to explore every part of her body and suddenly expands the metaphor into exploration and empire: she becomes his America, his new-found land, his mine of precious stones. Full nakedness, he argues, is the only way to taste complete joy, just as souls must leave the body to know pure pleasure. Women’s jewels and fine clothes are distractions meant for fools. True knowledge comes only when the body is revealed. He ends by stripping first himself, inviting her to match his openness.
Line by Line Analysis
Lines 1–4
The opening is both command and confession. “All rest my powers defy” means his sexual energy will not allow sleep. The double sense of “labour” is typical Donne: work and the pain of childbirth. He is in a state of urgent need. The soldier image that follows is lightly comic. Standing without fighting is exhausting. The implication is clear and physical.
Lines 5–12
The undressing begins. The girdle is compared to the glittering band of the heavens, yet it encloses a fairer world. The spangled breastplate is armor against the eyes of fools. The busk (the stiff front of a bodice) is envied because it stands so close to her body. Each comparison elevates the act of removal while keeping the tone intimate and slightly teasing.
Lines 13–18
The gown falls and reveals beauty like a hillside emerging from shadow. The coronet comes off to show her natural hair, called a “hairy Diadem.” Shoes are last. The bed is renamed “love’s hallow’d temple.” Sacred language is pressed into erotic service without apology.
Lines 19–24
She is now in white. Angels once appeared to men in such robes. She brings a paradise like the one promised in Islamic tradition, full of sensual delight. The speaker distinguishes true angels from evil spirits by a blunt physical test: evil spirits make the hair stand up; these make the flesh stand up. The joke is deliberate and characteristic.
Lines 25–30
The famous request: “Licence my roving hands.” The list of directions (before, behind, between, above, below) is both precise and playful. Then the great conceit arrives. She becomes America, the newly discovered continent. He is the explorer who claims the land, the sole ruler of a kingdom safest when manned by one man, the owner of a mine of gems. Discovery here is both geographical and sexual. The language of empire and possession is unmistakable.
Lines 31–48
Entering these “bonds” is freedom. His hand will set a seal of ownership. Full nakedness is required for complete joy, just as souls must leave the body. Women’s jewels are like the golden apples that distracted Atalanta: pretty objects that keep foolish men from the real prize. Clothes are only the gaudy covers of books meant for the unlearned. The true text is the body itself, a mystic book revealed only to the worthy. He asks her to show herself as freely as a woman shows herself to a midwife. There is no shame in innocence. Finally he removes his own clothes first, turning the invitation into a shared act rather than a one-sided command.
Major Themes and Techniques
The poem is a sustained exercise in metaphysical conceit. Ordinary objects (a girdle, a busk, a pair of shoes) are linked to heavens, temples, continents, and sacred texts. The comparisons are surprising yet logically pursued once they begin.
Desire is treated as natural, even virtuous. Donne overturns the older courtly tradition in which the lady remains unattainable. Here the goal is openly physical, and the argument is that delay is the real frustration.
Power and possession run through the colonial imagery. The beloved is land to be discovered, claimed, and exclusively held. Modern readers often note the politics of that language. In Donne’s moment it also expressed the excitement of an age of exploration.
The poem plays constantly with sacred and secular registers. Temple, angel, paradise, midwife, innocence: all are brought into the bedroom. The effect is not blasphemy so much as a refusal to keep body and spirit in separate rooms.
Symbolism
Clothing stands for everything that conceals true knowledge: social display, false modesty, the barriers of custom. Removing it becomes an act of revelation.
America and the new-found land symbolize the thrill of discovery and the desire for exclusive possession. The body is territory, the lover an explorer who plants his seal.
The temple and the angel elevate the physical act without denying its carnal nature. Sacred space is redefined as the bed.
Nakedness itself becomes the central symbol of truth and completeness. Only when both body and soul are free of coverings can “whole joys” be tasted.
Why the Poem Still Matters
Few poems of the period speak with this degree of direct physical urgency while remaining so intellectually agile. Donne refuses to choose between wit and desire. He makes them serve each other. The result is a seduction that feels both calculated and spontaneous, both playful and absolute.
The poem also shows the early Donne at full strength: restless in metaphor, unafraid of the body, and convinced that the mind and the senses belong in the same sentence. Later he would write of divine love with equal intensity. Here the intensity is aimed at a single human night, and he makes that night feel large enough to hold an empire.
A final note
The speaker ends by undressing first. The gesture is both gallant and strategic. It turns the long series of commands into a shared exposure. After all the elaborate comparisons and colonial claims, the poem closes on a simple, almost practical invitation: I am already naked. Why should you wear more than I do? The wit remains, but the last word is equality of skin.