George Herbert and John Donne each convey very different views on love in their poems "Love(III)" and "Lover 's Infiniteness". Donne uses a myriad of paradoxes and puns to explore the endless loop lover 's enter to complete the "transaction of love", while Herbert dramatizes a climatic meeting between a worshipper and God. Despite their vast difference in ideas, both poems exude a sense of insecurity and inadequacy that is later replaced with acceptance.
In "Love(III)", Herbert depicts God not as a figure of vengeance and stern judgement, but as a 'quick-eyed ', 'sweet ' lover, eager to please his children. The poem begins with the idea that man is unworthy of God 's favour and merit because he has no goodness. God, however, through his divinity shows how He is love by extending his grace and compassion to the unworthy through the sacrifice of Jesus. On the other hand, Donne 's poem depicts a forlorn lover, who believes that one must love wholeheartedly, leaving nothing behind for himself. He believes that he is entitled to all his beloved 's affections, as he has spent all his extremely exclusive "sighs, tears and oaths" to purchase her, and thus has the right to receive her utter devotion.
As the poem progresses, George Herbert continually questions whether he is worthy of God 's kind treatment, but his uneasiness is gradually overcome by a gentle God who has an answer to every question. "Love(III)" shows psychological insight in that humans are fundamentally resistant