Bird Imagery

There are a few birds flitting through this poem, generally in the form of metaphors which the speaker uses to describe himself and his lover. These aren't just any old pigeons, though. Each of the birds used in the poem holds a specific symbolic importance, allowing Donne's ideas about love and gender to take flight.

• Line 20: Now, don't get all National Geographic on us. We know that a fly is not a bird, but it does provide a kind of lowly baseline against which the speaker can compare himself and his beloved. "Call us nasty bugs if you want," he's saying here, "but we're really much more than that."
• Line 22: We have both the eagle and the dove in this poem, both of which are powerful symbols. And, significantly, the speaker notes that "we in us find" elements of both these birds. In other words, both the (presumably male) speaker and his female lover both contain elements of the powerful eagle (typically associated with masculinity) and the peaceful dove (typically associated with femininity).
• That's pretty progressive when you think about it. On one hand, the lovers are so intertwined that they possess element of both the male and female gender. On another level, though, the speaker seems to be saying that being totally in love means moving past stereotypes of gender difference. Moments like this are why a lot of feminist literary critics have been interested in Donne.
• Lines 23-27: The phoenix is a mythical bird that was associated with immortality. The saying goes that, when an old phoenix died, a new one would rise right out of its body. (Some versions of the tale have the old bird bursting into flame and a new one rising from its ashes.) In this poem, though, Donne brings in the phoenix to symbolize two other things.
• The first—much like with the eagle and dove—is again the radical idea of moving past gender differences as the male and female lover merge into each other: "to one neutral thing both sexes fit" (25). The typical considerations of masculine and feminine are trumped by their love. And if that sounds mysterious to you, then good. The speaker also notes that the couple is made "Mysterious by this love" (27). Just like the magical powers of the immortal phoenix, being in love (at least the way that the speaker is with his lover) is something that mere mortals just don't understand.