The Dissolution of Matter into the Four Elements
In several poems, including this one at line 23, Pulter alludes to the four elements—fire, earth, air, and water—as forming the material of all life. In this case, she refers to the end of earthly life, on Judgment Day, when the elements will turn all matter into one of their four forms, and her daughters will be welcomed in heaven. John Donne refers to a similar belief about matter returning to the four elements, but in this case he applies the image to a dead lover. He suggests that since the elements constituted both of their bodies that her body is enveloped (or involved, a word Pulter also uses frequently) in his. He depicts his suffering as caused by her death leaving more of the elements in him so that when he dies, the energy he releases will shoot his soul, presumably towards heaven, faster than hers.
- SHE’s dead; and all which die
- To their first elements resolve;
- And we were mutual elements to us,
- And made of one another.
- My body then doth hers involve,
- And those things whereof I consist hereby
- In me abundant grow, and burdenous,
- And nourish not, but smother.
- My fire of passion, sighs of air,
- Water of tears, and earthly sad despair,
- Which my materials be,
- But near worn out by love’s security,
- She, to my loss, doth by her death repair.
- And I might live long wretched so,
- But that my fire doth with my fuel grow.
- Now, as those active kings
- Whose foreign conquest treasure brings,
- Receive more, and spend more, and soonest break,
- This—which I am amazed that I can speak—
- This death, hath with my store
- My use increased.
- And so my soul, more earnestly released,
- Will outstrip hers; as bullets flown before
- A latter bullet may o'ertake, the powder being more.