The Triple Fool Analysis

I am two fools, I know-For loving, and for saying so

In whining poetry;

But where's that wiseman that would not be I,

If she would not deny?

Then, as th' earths inward narrow crooked lanes

Do purge sea waters fretful salt away,

I thought, if I could draw my pains

Through rhymes vexation, I should them allay.

Grief brought to numbers cannot be so fierce,

For he tames it that fetters it in verse.But when I have done so,

Some man, his art and voice to show,

Doth set and sing my pain,

And, by delighting many, frees again

Grief, which verse did restrain.

To Love and Grief tribute of verse belongs,

But not of such as pleases when 'tis read;

Both are increased by such songs,

For both their triumphs so are published;

And I, which was two fooles, do so grow three;

Who are a little wise, the best fools be.

.: :.

I think a simple interpertation of the poem is nessassary. The poem could possibly mean that The people who are wise and smart are the real fools of the world becuase of there disire to know the truth of ther world.

| Posted on 2009-04-29 | by a guest

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OK, these are all great, but I'm thinking that he's saying in the last line, not that because he is wise that he is a great fool, but because he put it into verse and thought *that* wise that he makes himself even more foolish.
What he did was wise, though he though himself foolish for writing the poem, it actually did help him. However, because he wrote it down, he calls himself foolish for allowing it to be read and circled back to him. Initially, the therapy of transffering his suffering into verse left him feeling better, but that wisdom backfired and when he heard it fired back at him, he felt all of the emotions he had purged again.
Since his wisdom backfired, he feels to be an even greater fool.

| Posted on 2009-03-15 | by a guest

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Donne is stating that he was a fool for loving (unrequited love) and that he was a fool for writing it down "in whining poetry". He compares his poetry to nature in how the earth leaches salt from sea water the same way it does his tears.
Then someone set his poem in a song (no copyrights in the Renaissance!); he's torn between mortification that someone's singing his pain to the world and amusement that people empathize with and listen to his poem, so much so that he wrote another poem about it. The third fool is the fool who recognizes that he is a fool.
Written in thanks to Ms. Murphy.

| Posted on 2008-09-25 | by a guest

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I believe every assertions I will support in the following are absolutely correct (I am Professor Dodo currently teaching in Duguwaga): John Donne has written "The Triple Fool" with lots of powerful insights. He states his opinions about wise/unwise men in an very indirect manner. However, he believes he is already a fool, since he has loved, and has stated that he is a fool. In conclusion, Donne himself states that he is a very wise men since he is a fool, and fools that are wise often states that they are a fool. Any concerns, opinions, questions, contradictory statements may be intercommunicated through a source of media called the "Email."
My Email is: *

| Posted on 2008-06-23 | by a guest

.: :.

I believe every assertions I will support in the following are absolutely correct (I am Professor Dodo currently teaching in Duguwaga): John Donne has written "The Triple Fool" with lots of powerful insights. He states his opinions about wise/unwise men in an very indirect manner. However, he believes he is already a fool, since he has loved, and has stated that he is a fool. In conclusion, Donne himself states that he is a very wise men since he is a fool, and fools that are wise often states that they are a fool. Any concerns, opinions, questions, contradictory statements may be intercommunicated through a source of media called the "Email."
My Email is: *

| Posted on 2008-06-23 | by a guest

.: :.

I believe every assertions I will support in the following are absolutely correct (I am Professor Dodo currently teaching in Duguwaga): John Donne has written "The Triple Fool" with lots of powerful insights. He states his opinions about wise/unwise men in an very indirect manner. However, he believes he is already a fool, since he has loved, and has stated that he is a fool. In conclusion, Donne himself states that he is a very wise men since he is a fool, and fools that are wise often states that they are a fool. Any concerns, opinions, questions, contradictory statements may be intercommunicated through a source of media called the "Email."
My Email is: *

| Posted on 2008-06-23 | by a guest

.: :.

I believe every assertions I will support in the following are absolutely correct (I am Professor Dodo currently teaching in Duguwaga): John Donne has written "The Triple Fool" with lots of powerful insights. He states his opinions about wise/unwise men in an very indirect manner. However, he believes he is already a fool, since he has loved, and has stated that he is a fool. In conclusion, Donne himself states that he is a very wise men since he is a fool, and fools that are wise often states that they are a fool. Any concerns, opinions, questions, contradictory statements may be intercommunicated through a source of media called the "Email."
My Email is: *

| Posted on 2008-06-23 | by a guest

.: :.

I believe every assertions I will support in the following are absolutely correct (I am Professor Dodo currently teaching in Duguwaga): John Donne has written "The Triple Fool" with lots of powerful insights. He states his opinions about wise/unwise men in an very indirect manner. However, he believes he is already a fool, since he has loved, and has stated that he is a fool. In conclusion, Donne himself states that he is a very wise men since he is a fool, and fools that are wise often states that they are a fool. Any concerns, opinions, questions, contradictory statements may be intercommunicated through a source of media called the "Email."
My Email is: *

| Posted on 2008-06-23 | by a guest

.: :.

"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."
-- Touchstone, As You Like It, Act V, Scene I.
excuse my previous butchering of the quote

| Posted on 2008-05-01 | by a guest

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the last line is an allusion to shakespeare (who actually lived at the same time as Donne)---"The fool thinketh that he is wise, whereas the wise man knoweth that he [himself] is a fool"

| Posted on 2008-05-01 | by a guest

.: hi :.

i really like the second poster's interpretation, and about the "allusion," i think he (or she) just meant that the two concepts were thematically related. probably just a slip of the tongue, yet great connection nonetheless.

| Posted on 2008-04-03 | by a guest

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I disagree with a protion of the 2nd commenter's critique; "He follows to say that he would still not be wise, even if "she" returned his love, which sh apparently does not."
I would argue that in those specific verses he is not calling himself unwise, but say, if this poem were to win the heart of the one he loved, it could be argued that he is, in fact, wise.

| Posted on 2008-03-31 | by a guest

.: .: :. :.

I very much agree with the below Guest except for one detail. While the quote "A little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep, or taste not the pierian spring," (First used by Alexander Pope) serves as a fabulous comparison to Donne's "Who are a little wise, the best fools be," it is not being alluded to in The Triple Fool, simply because Alexander Pope was born 57 years after the death of Donne.

| Posted on 2007-10-10 | by a guest

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I generally agree with "Approved Guest"'s interpretation, save the last line. The first clause says tht he is two times a fool, a fool for loving, and a fool for admitting it in emo. poetry. He follows to say that he would still not be wise, even if "she" returned his love, which sh apparently does not. Therefor, he says, he tries to release his emotions by transferring them into a poem, utilising chemistry-like transitive properties to liberate his emotions from his body onto the paper. However, he anticipates that no sooner than that will be accomplished that "some man" to show off his musical and theatrical abilities will turn his poem into a performance, and by acting the sorrow out, will again release the sorrow back into the atmosphere, with even more puissance, where it will find its old home in the author's body, making him again, a fool. The last line, which says, "Who are a little wise, the best fools be" is an allusion to "A little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep, or taste not the pierian spring," emphasising that he is not the best "kind of fool," but, rather, the biggest fool of all, with enough knnowledge to know better, but not actually knowing any better.


| Posted on 2007-07-25 | by a guest

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vs. 1-5: He is saying he is a fool for 2 reasons: loving and saying he's a fool in complaining songs.(where is the wise man)

vs. 6-11: Thouht tht if he put his pains in verse the grief won't be so bad

vs. 12-16: Says that people who want to boast of his or her singing skills make the love and griet where vers kept in make it bad again for the author when he hears it.

vs. 17-21: poetry is for love and grief and not for pleasing things, but songs make love and grief even worse so by writing love or depressing songs. He is now another fool.

Vs. 22: he ends with saying he is a little wise and therefore one of the best kind of fools.

| Posted on 2005-05-21 | by Approved Guest