The Apparition

In line 15 of John Donne's poem The Apparition, the speaker proclaims that his love for the woman "is spent." The tone of the poem as a whole agrees with this. After reading this poem, it struck me as a man arguing with his wife or soon to be exwife. This man claims that when he dies, he is going to haunt this woman until she lives more of a ghostly life than he. The quote, "And then, poor aspen wretch, neglected, thou, bathed in cold quicksilver sweat, wilt lie, a verier ghost then I " (Donne, 889), shows this. The speaker does not say why he expresses such harsh terms throughout the poem. I believe that the author of this poem used the word "vestal" for a reason. That terms screams mistreatment towards sexual behaviors to me. However, in it's context, I feel that instead of this woman being threatened due to losing her virginity, I feel this woman may have cheated on the speaker during their marriage. This coule be the reason why this man feels no love towards this woman for his love was built on trust which was forever broken.