requirements as to what kind of a woman he specifically wants, "I can love her, and her, and you and you, / I can love any, so she be not true" (ll. 8-9). This is where we see that the speaker has no intention of being monogamous, he is promiscuous and wants his women to be also. This attitude reflects the age and mindset that Donne was in when he wrote this poem (more on this later).In the first stanza, it is hard to tell who the actual audience is. I get a picture of a man standing in front of a crowd or on a podium telling all who will listen just what kind of woman he is looking for. The audience could be a group of men who he is trying to impress by telling them that he could have any of the number of different women. It could also be that he is speaking to a crowd of women who he is hoping will be swayed into going home with him. Or he could be speaking to two women, possibly two former lovers who have found out that he has been untrue to them both. He may be trying to talk his way out of the situation in hopes that the two women will see his point of view. This is shown in the first line, "I can love both fair and brown" and also in the description of the different kinds of women he speaks about in lines two through seven. He could be describing the qualities that he likes in each of them, hoping that they will see that he is not being promiscuous with them out of vein, but because he likes some variety in his love life. This is where the reader needs to decide for himself whom the speaker is addressing. In the second stanza, we see the speaker's persuasiveness as he tries to tempt the woman into being promiscuous like he is. He desires a solely sexual relationship and believes that such a relationship cannot exist if they are faithful to one another. It's not that he wants to be untruthful to her; he has no problem telling her outright that he wants to be free and do as he pleases, but what he does not want is to b...
