JOHN DONNE

JOHN DONNE 1572-1631 Contradictory

Wild, young = clever love poemsSerious, older = meditations and sermons

Religious conflictRaised CatholicAbandoned Catholicism for Church of

England True conversion or advancing in society?

Secret marriageAnne More: employer’s niece 1601

Love or promoting career?

METAPHYSICAL POETRY Intellectual, concerned with philosophy, law,

science, etc. Poetic devices = conceits and paradoxes

Conceits: extended metaphors that link objects or ideas not commonly associatedEx.: “All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;They have their exits and their entrances”

-Shakespeare, As You Like It Paradoxes: images or descriptions that appear

self-contradictory but reveal a deeper truthEx.: “Death, thou shalt die.”

-Donne, “Holy Sonnet 10”

Written by John Donne

p. 438-439

A VALEDICTION:FORBIDDING

MOURNING

A VALEDICTION:FORBIDDING MOURNING 2 Paradoxes 1 Conceit 2-3 Sentence Summary per Slide(3 slides total)

A VALEDICTION: FORBIDDING MOURNINGAs virtuous men pass mildly away,And whisper to their souls to go,Whilst some of their sad friends do say,The breath goes now, and some say, No;

So let us melt, and make no noise,No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;'Twere profanation of our joysTo tell the laity our love.

Moving of the earth brings harms and fears,Men reckon what it did and meant;But trepidation of the spheres,Though greater far, is innocent.

A VALEDICTION: FORBIDDING MOURNINGDull sublunary lovers' love(Whose soul is sense) cannot admitAbsence, because it doth removeThose things which elemented it.

But we, by a love so much refinedThat our selves know not what it is,Inter-assured of the mind,Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.

Our two souls therefore, which are one,Though I must go, endure not yetA breach, but an expansion.Like gold to airy thinness beat.

A VALEDICTION: FORBIDDING MOURNINGIf they be two, they are two soAs stiff twin compasses are two:Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no showTo move, but doth, if the other do;

And though it in the center sit,Yet when the other far doth roam,It leans, and hearkens after it,And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,Like the other foot, obliquely run;Thy firmness makes my circle just,And makes me end where I begun.

MEDITATION 17Written by John Donne

p. 442-444

MEDITATION 17 Analyze the conceit that compares

mankind to a volumeMankind = VolumeGod = _________________Individual men = _________________Death = _________________Sickness, war, justice =

_________________Library = _________________

Explain the conceit that states “no man is an island.”

For whom does the bell toll and what does Donne mean?

CRITICAL READING QUESTIONS p. 439: #s 2, 3, 5 p. 444: #s 4, 5, 6