The speaker in John Donne's poem “Love Diet” distances himself from his current relationship because his attitude toward love moves from discomfort to indifference with intermediate steps of defensive attacks. The speaker presented by Donne does not have complete control over his emotions and even shows subtle signs of fear when faced with emotions such as rejection. The lack of control, however, leads to feelings of annoyance because the speaker is so consumed by love that he or she no longer has the ability to focus on other activities. The speaker then begins to distance himself from his lover by metaphorically putting his love on a diet to achieve a state of indifference towards love and avoid the pain of rejection by an unfaithful lover. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Without giving any indication as to the reason for his romantic annoyance, the speaker nevertheless clearly establishes his emotions. In the first lines of the poem, he uses verbose language to describe love as “an unwieldy heaviness / And a heavy heaviness” (Donne 104, 1-2) to indicate that the relationship has become problematic for him. In the next lines the speaker sees the need to diminish his love “and keep it in proportion” (Donne 104, 4), suggesting that corpulent love so consumes the speaker that he cannot perform other activities. With four lines of background the speaker then introduces the metaphor of the diet for his love. The use of this metaphor works effectively for the speaker because, as the personified version of excessive love physically diminishes with diet, the speaker achieves greater emotional distance from her lover and approaches a state of indifference. The speaker distances himself from his current relationship in both cases. limiting his responses to love and refusing to accept signs of affection from his lover. The second, third, and fourth stanzas of "Love's Diet" all follow a set pattern that shows the speaker struggling to keep his love on a diet in the first three lines of the stanza before making sure his lover doesn't actually show him favor. him alone. In the second stanza, the speaker proclaims that he does not allow his love to have more than one sigh a day (Donne 104, 7). Although the love is still present, the speaker begins to exert more control over the love, especially when interacting with the lover. When the lover sighs and love goes against the diet to feast on its manifestations, the speaker “shows him / It was neither very good, nor suitable for me” (Donne 104, 11-12). The speaker, having already devised a way to diminish his emotions, must confront those of his lady. He convinces himself that her sigh, which previously would have been fodder for love, wasn't even directed at him. The speaker distances himself from traditional activities associated with love as the pattern of denial continues into the third and fourth stanzas. The speaker claims that if love caused tears he “carried [the tear] so / With contempt and shame, that it did not nourish him” (Donne 104, 13-14). Overly salty tears would keep love on a strict diet, although the attitude towards love shows that the speaker is becoming pompous in his method of distancing himself from the relationship. The speaker also asserts his control over love by maintaining an attitude of contempt towards his woman's actions. When he cries, the speaker attacks his faithfulness because his "eyes that turn towards everyone, do not cry, but sweat" (Donne 104, 18). The blow against his lover's fidelity is a new element in the poem.In the second stanza the speaker does not mention who the sighs were directed at, but here the speaker includes another collective group of men with whom his lady presumably also has relations. The speaker includes a defensive element in his attempts to distance himself from love. The speaker's defensive measures extend into the fourth stanza. According to the parameters of the speaker's model, he begins by boldly stating that he burned the letters that love made him write (Women 104, 20). Although he prevented contact by burning the letters, the speaker still wrote them in the first place. Even in the previous stanzas, the speaker continued to perform actions associated with love despite stating that his love is on a diet. The speaker also continued to carefully examine his lady's responses against the original intent of distancing himself from her. The defensive measures he employs in denying his lover's affection culminate in the question he asks at the end of the fourth stanza: “what's the point / To be the fortieth name in a bond (Women 105, 23-24)? According to the speaker, his lover writes to many people, and among them he is at the bottom of the list. The reference to "a commitment" indicates the process of inheriting the land, which the speaker uses in the poem as the non-existent possibility of being with his woman because her name is the fortieth on the list. The question, while not a direct attack as seen above, echoes the lover's infidelity and the speaker's attempts to distance himself. Although the speaker tries to distance himself from his relationship, he still pays close attention to his lover throughout the poem. He describes love as a burden (Donne 104, 1) but for a span of three stanzas he observes his lady's sighs, tears and letters. The interaction continues despite the debate about his faithfulness because the speaker refuses to actually end the relationship. The concept of diet implies that the speaker simply distances himself but has no intention of distancing himself because the diet is not intended to lead to death. The speaker cannot destroy his emotions, but in the matter of the fourth stanza, his defensive measures of attack shift to the knowledge that worrying too much is not good for him (Donne 104, 23-24). The answer to your question lies in acquiring an attitude of indifference. Although the speaker has shown in the previous stanzas that he cannot end the relationship effectively because he still pays attention to his lover; despite his claims that love bothers him, the speaker develops an attitude of indifference. The speaker opens the last stanza with a birdwatching metaphor. He states that "So I recovered my love to fly like buzzard / To what, and when, and how and where I choose" (Women 105, 25-26). His love, once incapable of direction and precision, now resembles the tamed hawk that hunts with keen observation. The speaker, however, claims to resemble the owner of the falcon who can perform acts of love as a hunter would behave during a hunting trip. Love, which once disturbed the speaker, now does not consume him or keep him from other activities because the speaker says it can "make a lover go out, swear, write, sigh and cry: / And the game killed, or lost, go and talk and sleep” (Donne 105, 29-30). Whether or not the speaker succeeds in acquiring a lover, it makes no difference to him because he has reached the point where love is an isolated activity. which has no bearing on the rest of his life. The birdwatching metaphor allows the speaker to move from a person still controlled by love to a person capable of an existence outside of it of love" the speaker has devised the goal of keeping his love in proportion,, 2007. 104-5.