John Donne

The Triple Fool

two fools

First fool: falling in love. Second fool: writing whining poetry about it. He's mocking his own lovesick verse.

{{gap|1em}}I am two fools, I know,
{{gap|1em}}For loving, and for saying so
{{gap|2em}}In whining poetry;
But where's that wise man, that would not be I,
{{gap|2em}}If she would not deny?
Then as th' earth's inward narrow crooked lanes

earth's crooked lanes

Literal Renaissance science—people thought underground channels filtered seawater into fresh water. Poetry as filtration system for grief.

{{gap|1em}}Do purge sea water's fretful salt away,
I thought, if I could draw my pains
{{gap|1em}}Through rhyme's vexation, I should them allay.
Grief brought to numbers cannot be so fierce,

fetters it in verse

**Fetters** = chains. Writing poetry chains up grief, makes it manageable. The metaphor is imprisonment, not expression.

For he tames it, that fetters it in verse.
{{gap|1em}}But when I have done so,
{{gap|1em}}Some man, his art and voice to show,

set and sing

**Set** = compose music for. His poems are being turned into songs by musicians showing off their skills.

{{gap|2em}}Doth set and sing my pain;

frees again

The musician un-chains the grief by performing it publicly. What poetry locked up, performance releases.

And, by delighting many, frees again
{{gap|2em}}Grief, which verse did restrain.
To love and grief tribute of verse belongs,
{{gap|1em}}But not of such as pleases when 'tis read.
Both are increasèd by such songs,
{{gap|1em}}For both their triumphs so are published,
And I, which was two fools, do so grow three.

three fools

Third fool: letting his private pain become public entertainment. The 'triple' in the title.

Who are a little wise, the best fools be.
Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

The Grief Management System That Backfires

Donne's argument has a precise logic. He writes poetry to tame his grief—the word choice matters because he's not expressing feelings, he's imprisoning them. The metaphor is "fetters" (chains), not catharsis. Poetry is supposed to work like those underground channels Renaissance science thought filtered seawater: "purge sea water's fretful salt away." Write down the painful stuff, and the writing process filters out the sting.

But then some musician comes along and sets his poem to music. This is literal—Donne's poems were actually turned into songs by composers like Alfonso Ferrabosco. The musician wants to show off "his art and voice," not help Donne process feelings. By performing the poem publicly, "delighting many," he releases the grief Donne had carefully locked up. What was private pain becomes public entertainment.

The final couplet delivers the punchline: he's now three fools instead of two. First fool: loving. Second fool: writing about it. Third fool: letting his private grief become a performance piece for others. The last line—"Who are a little wise, the best fools be"—is Donne's bitter acknowledgment that trying to be clever about grief just makes you a more sophisticated kind of idiot.

What 'Whining Poetry' Meant

"Whining poetry" in line 3 is Donne mocking the Petrarchan love poem tradition—the idealized, suffering-lover stuff that dominated Renaissance verse. Petrarch wrote 366 poems about Laura, most of them complaints. By 1600, the genre was a cliché.

Donne's early reputation was as the anti-Petrarchan poet, the guy who wrote cynical, sexually frank love poems. But this poem admits he's fallen into the same trap: writing "tribute of verse" to love and grief like everyone else. The self-awareness doesn't help. Knowing you're writing clichéd whining poetry while writing clichéd whining poetry makes you a triple fool.

The poem dates from roughly 1600-1610, when Donne's poems were circulating in manuscript among London intellectuals and courtiers—and yes, being set to music. He's literally experiencing the problem he describes: his private poems becoming public performances. The frustration is real.