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John Donne
"Meditation 17" is about the unity of mankind through our faith in God. The passage begins with a discussion of a bell tolling indicating that someone is dying. That someone could be anyone, even...
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John Donne
This poem is written in a meter called iambic tetrameter, and this means that there are four (tetra-) metrical feet per line. The metrical foot is called an iamb (where we get "iambic"), and this...
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John Donne
In "The Bait," the poem's speaker invites his love to come and live with him and create a sort of paradise for the two of them. He believes that if she joins him, he will need neither the sun nor...
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John Donne
You will get in trouble for cutting and pasting someone else's words into your assignment. This is called plagiarism, and it is a serious academic offense. In the professional world it can lead to...
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John Donne
The narrator in this poem is a woman, speaking as day breaks, and her lover is getting up to go. She is asking who cares if it's daylight. Since it wasn't the night that made them lie down...
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John Donne
The speaker of the poem outlines and describes his own desire many times, though he never really addresses his lover's feminine sexual desire explicitly. He compares her to an angel, a creature of...
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John Donne
Figures of speech are a great many different uses of language -- allegories and similes, hyperbole and metonymy, and alliteration and onomatopeia are all included under this heading (as are many...
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John Donne
In "The Flea" John Donne's speaker uses the metaphysical conceit of a flea's blood-sucking to convince a possible lover to join him in physical (sexual) union. It's a kind of pick-up line using...
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John Donne
John Donne uses apostrophe, or direct address, by talking to his beloved in this poem: he speaks directly to her to reassure her that he will not be gone long on his journey. He uses enjambment, or...
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John Donne
First of all, Death—note the capital D, which indicates personification—has no reason to be proud, as he isn't anywhere near as scary ("mighty and dreadful") as he thinks he is. Straight away,...
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John Donne
Donne's principal theme in Meditation XVII is the interconnectedness of all people within the church. When the church baptizes a child, the action concerns him because "that child is thereby...
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John Donne
With so many important poets dominating the time periods you mention, the scope of your question is enormous! However, I’ll try to answer it as succinctly as possible in the space we have available...
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John Donne
Donne was a cleric (priest) in the Church of England and rose through the hierarchy to become the Dean of London's St. Paul's Cathedral. He is known for sleeping in a coffin to remind himself of...
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John Donne
Samuel Johnson, who coined the term "metaphysical" to describe seventeenth-century poets like John Donne, wrote that they "yoke" unlikely comparisons (metaphors) together. They like to startle us...
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John Donne
One theme found in many of the poems of John Donne, both the secular and religious, is the theme of love. However, love in Donne’s day was often divided into two kinds. True, selfless, and godly...
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John Donne
As is true of the writings of many good poets, John Donne’s imagery can be highly various and diverse. Yet Donne’s poems, far more than those of many other writers, often seem especially...
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John Donne
Death is personified in John Donne's "Death, Be Not Proud" to show that it is not to be feared and can be conquered. The speaker opens with the idea that many have considered Death "mighty and...
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John Donne
This poem—whose actual title is "Song," although it is often referred to by its first line—is, for the first several stanzas, light and enchanting, with a disappointing final stanza which seems to...
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John Donne
In so-called metaphysical poetry such as Donne's, a conceit is an elaborate metaphor in which two dissimilar things are compared over the course of a poem. In "Death, Be Not Proud" the relevant...
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John Donne
John Donne’s “Air and Angels” is a poem about love. The speaker addresses the poem to his beloved, pondering the nature of love as a pure emotion in comparison to its embodied form in a person. He...
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John Donne
Metaphysical poetry usually refers to the works of several 17th century British poets. The most commonly known is John Donne; however, there are several others that fall into this category as...
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John Donne
In "Meditation 17," John Donne is quite ill—thinking that he is probably nearing his own death—when he hears funeral bells ringing. This causes him to ponder the interconnectedness of life and how...
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John Donne
The term and application of the term "metaphysical" in poetry and literature refers to the exploration and extrapolation of themes that cannot otherwise be explained but through self contemplation,...
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John Donne
Samuel Johnson coined the term "metaphysical" in the 18th century to describe a certain group of 17th century poets who Johnson rightly believed defied classical norms in poetry by writing...
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John Donne
Metaphysical poetry can be a tough read. It is characterized by frequent paradoxes and complicated thought processes. Metaphysical poets often use strange imagery as well. Metaphysics, in a...
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John Donne
I think Donne was describing a way of loving that was more spiritual than material. He often compared loving the Ideal (religious/spiritual) to loving a woman. In other words, he'd say that loving...
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John Donne
The early poetry of John Donne uses metaphysical conceits to show the physical union of the male and female, husband and wife, lover and mistress. His complex use of conceits compares to the act of...
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John Donne
Truly it were an excusable covetousness if we did, for affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it. No man hath affliction enough that is not matured and ripened by and made fit...
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John Donne
John Donne’s poetry often uses “conceits” – that is, comparisons in which the similarities between two things are explained over the course of several lines (or even multiple stanzas) rather than...
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John Donne
This is just a metaphor suggesting that honesty is not the best policy for getting ahead in the world. The image is that of a sailing vessel catching a wind that will move it in the desired...
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John Donne
In the poem, John Donne personifies death and addresses this “person,” using the poetic device called “apostrophe.” Donne throughout contrasts the mortal person and the immortal soul, using several...
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John Donne
This mistake is often made -- the selection to which you are referring is not a poem, but an extract from one of Donne's "Devotions". These were writings on sacred subjects, which Donne sometimes...
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John Donne
John Donne (c. 1572–1631) was born into a Roman Catholic family but converted to Anglicanism and became an ordained priest in the Church of England in 1615. His portrait of God could be...
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John Donne
For Donne, the nature of love seems to be torturous. Love is hard, and it makes us suffer both while we are in and when we are falling out. It's hard to stay in love, even for a short time. Donne...
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John Donne
John Donne's poetry and sermons, especially after he became a priest in 1615, are deeply religious. Understanding the contents and evolution of his religious beliefs helps us understand his poetry...
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John Donne
John Donne's "love lyrics" were not published until after his death. It is assumed that they were written before he married Anne More. These poems are sometimes what one would expect of a more wild...
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John Donne
John Donne’s poem “The Good Morrow” illustrates passion and wit – two common features of “metaphysical” poetry – in various ways. “Wit,” for Donne and his contemporaries, meant not simply...
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John Donne
Metaphysical poetry is usually characterized by the poet's attention to a single topic -- usually of a more philosophical nature. The poets that are considered metaphysical all display...
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John Donne
John Donne's poems "Batter My Heart" and "The Flea" are filled with wit and startling imagery. In "Batter My Heart"--in which the poet addresses God--his wit manifests in the closing lines: Take...
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John Donne
This is an excellent question. Donne was a very learned man, and so the often highly intellectual nature of his poetry inevitably reflects his deep and broad learning. He was well read in...
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John Donne
It depends upon which Donne. There are two: the early Donne focuses on the physical union of the male and female, while the late Donne focuses on the spiritual union of man and God. Both Donnes...
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John Donne
It depends what you mean by a "holy message." Clearly, these two poems are both very religious in their theme and nature, and express an intimate relationship between the speaker and his God....
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John Donne
The above post gives you great historical information. You might also consider the "literary era" with which John Donne is associated. He is usually characterized as a Metaphysical Poet and is...
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John Donne
Air and AngelsBy John Donne Twice or thrice had I lov'd thee,I had already fallen in love with you two or three times, Before I knew thy face or name;Even before I had met you or learned your name....
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John Donne
John Donne's poem "The Good-Morrow" is part of his Songs and Sonnets published in 1633, and although he called this a sonnet, the poem is 21 lines long rather than 14 and is a mix of iambic...
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John Donne
The tone is, as the title implies, thoughtful and meditative. Donne had just recovered from a serious illness and was contemplating his life and how it related to the rest of the world. He realized...
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John Donne
"A Lecture Upon the Shadow" is a poem about love and, somewhat metaphorically, about vision. Using an extended analogy (a conceit), Donne's poem compares the vision of lovers (and the delusions of...
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John Donne
STANZA ONE: The poem opens with the male speaker wondering by his “troth” (1) – that is, his good faith – what he and his beloved did before they loved. In other words, he wonders what their lives...
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John Donne
To begin, one must first understand what a metaphor is (in order to identify them within the confines of a text). A metaphor is a comparison between two normally dissimilar things. The comparison...
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John Donne
In poems like "Loves Growth" and "The Extasie" Donne argues that body and soul should be closely associated for a fulfilling and loving relationsip. Love is therefore conceived as both physical and...