Maps

Donne’s poem makes use of several different extended metaphors. One of the most central, however, is the map. This theme is introduced in the second stanza. The speaker imagines his physicians transformed into “cosmographers” – those who copy out the map of the heavens and of Earth (7). The speaker himself, meanwhile, imagines himself as a map. Like the physical parchment on which a map is drawn, he lies “flat on this bed,” transformed into a two-dimensional image by the overwhelming nature of his illness (8).

This metaphor provides an exploration for how physicians relate to the body of someone who is sick. The patient feels helpless and objectified, like the literal object of a map, as the doctors attempt to find a way to make meaning out of his illness. They make the “discovery,” as a map-maker discovers some new piece of geography, that he is going...