Elegy for John Donne (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Joseph Brodsky
- First Published: 1965
- Type of Work: Elegy
- Genres: Poetry, Elegy
- Subjects: Authors or writers, Poetry or poets, Death or dying, Life and death
The Poem
As the title “Elegy for John Donne” indicates, the poem is an elegy, a formal and sustained lament in verse form mourning the death of a particular person—in this case, the death of John Donne, the seventeenth century Metaphysical poet. The Russian title includes the word bolshaya (“big”), which connotes the importance and depth of this tribute to Donne. This adjective is omitted in the translation by George L. Kline used here. In the original and in translation, the poem is written in pentameter (ten syllables per poetic line), the metrical line used...
[The entire page is 1530 words long]
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