Questions and Answers for John Donne
John Donne
What is a summary of the poem "A Lecture Upon the Shadow" by John Donne?
You could also interpret this poem as a commentary on the way we present ourselves to others; as we develop relationships we are casting ourselves in shadow, hiding our true selves from the other...
John Donne
Break Of Day John Donne
The poem is a love song written from the perspective of a woman who is in love. She is upset because after a night spent with her lover, he will now awaken and leave her because daylight has...
John Donne
No Man Is An Island Analysis
The final lines of John Donne's poem or meditation are especially striking. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee. The construction of the sentence seems a...
John Donne
What is a good summary of Meditation 17 by John Donne? Needed ASAP
In this meditation, Donne asserts that all humans are interconnected. What happens to one person affects everyone else, because we are all part of God's kingdom and creation. Donne writes, Any...
John Donne
Discuss the features of metaphysical poetry in "The Sun Rising"?
In the poem “The Sun Rising” by English poet John Donne, the features of metaphysical poetry are quite apparent. First, Donne is engaging in an intellectual but conjectural conversation with the...
John Donne
Metaphysical Poetry
The term "metaphysical" as originally coined by Dr. Johnson was intended to be used as a pejorative. By the time Johnson came to write his Lives Of The Most Eminent English Poets,the works of the...
John Donne
In "Meditation 17" Donne says,"No man is an island ". What does this statement mean?
"No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as...
John Donne
What is a summary of "Air and Angels"?
In the first stanza, the speaker discusses how he first experienced romantic love in abstract form, as a desire for love. However, a desire for love could not, by itself, satisfy him. The speaker...
John Donne
What are some metaphors found in the poem Meditation XVII?
Donne uses an extended metaphor of a book's chapter to represent an individual's life. Our whole life is presented by Donne as a story written down in a great book. However, our lives are not the...
John Donne
Extract the figures of speech in "The Sun Rising" by John Donne.
In John Donne's "The Sun Rising," one figure of speech that is used several times is the rhetorical question. For example, in the opening lines of the poem, the speaker asks the sun why it always,...
John Donne
How does the poem "The Canonization" illustrate the idea that metaphysical poetry is characterized as much by logical...
"The Canonization," by John Donne, is an argument. In this argument the speaker presents a logical and persuasive defense of his love. He speaks to a listener who has criticized the speaker's...
John Donne
Can someone please translate the entire poem "Death Be Not Proud" into modern-day English?
This is one of Donne's most famous poems, addressing Death as a personified being and suggesting that, ultimately, he has no power at all. A rough "translation" into modern English might be...
John Donne
How is Donne's poetry different from Elizabethan poetry?
Donne's poetry is of the Metaphysical school. It's a kind of pre-Romantic poetry similar to the Elizabethans', namely Shakespeare's, who used many conceits and extended metaphors like Donne....
John Donne
How does Donne use conceit in "Death Be Not Proud"?
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...
John Donne
Attempt a critical appreciation of Donne's "A Hymn to God the Father"
John Donne's "A Hymn to God the Father" is characteristic of the wit and passion displayed in metaphysical poetry. The poem is a prayer made by the speaker to god for forgiveness of his sins. The...
John Donne
What is the tone of John Donne's poem "The Good Morrow"?
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...
John Donne
According to Donne (meditation 17), how can the suffering of one person benefit others?
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...
John Donne
Discuss the features of metaphysical poetry in "The Flea."
The essential feature of metaphysical poetry is its use of the conceit: an extended, elaborated metaphor in which two very unlike things, which hardly anyone would have thought to equate, are...
John Donne
How does the speaker use the varied imagery of the poem to reveal his attitude toward the nature of love in the poem...
Imagery is describing using the five sense of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. If you can see, hear, taste, smell, or touch an item in a poem, then it is an image. In this poem, Donne's...
John Donne
What characteristics are there in the poem "Go and Catch a Falling Star" by John Donne to justify that it is a...
Lyrical poems use figurative language to express deeply felt emotion. They also have a musical quality, as if they could be sung, and they usually have a distinct meter. A lyrical poem is different...
John Donne
What are some common themes in the poems of John Donne? Please discuss in particular the following poems: "The...
One theme that weaves through the majority of John Donne's works is love or romance. He was unique in his era for being fairly straightforward in his notions and descriptions of sex, with many...
John Donne
What is the message in the poem by John Donne, "Legacy?" I can't seem to decipher it.
"The Legacy," a poem written by John Donne, a poet during the reign of James I in England, is a love poem. This is a lovely poem about how much the speaker loves the woman in his life. He first...
John Donne
What does John Donne mean with regard to the first sentence in "Meditation 17”?
With regard to the first sentence in "Meditation 17”, John Donne means that someone may have death at their door and not even really know it. The first line of Meditation 17 reads: “Perchance he...
John Donne
Please discuss the paradox in the last two lines of John Donne's sonnet "Death be not proud". Thank you.
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...
John Donne
How we can discuss the theme of the poem "The Good-Morrow" by John Donne with detail?
The theme of "The Good- Morrow" by Donne rests with the idea that true love is a spiritual connection that two people share. Donne uses many ideas to convey this theme. The most compelling of...
John Donne
Explain why Donne questions the fidelity of women in his poem "Go and catch a falling star."
It is important to note how John Donne is actually being quite counter-cultural in this poem. In contrast with other Renaissance songs that idealise women, this song satirises them using hyperbole...
John Donne
How does John Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" reflect the metaphysical style?
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...
John Donne
Analyze and Explain the "Sun rising" poem by John Donne?
The Sun Rising is a monologue to the Sun, in which the narrator both exalts it and insults bringing with it a lot of descriptive and emotive language that gears towards the necessity of the Sun in...
John Donne
How would you analyze John Donne's "Negative Love"? I can obtain a simple meaning from my point of view, but...
John Donne was a metaphysical poet, which means going beyond or transcending the physical or material world. In terms of understanding his context or time period, Donne was a clergyman who believed...
John Donne
How is Donne's life and character reflected in his metaphysical poetry?
Here are some possible responses to your question: So-called “metaphysical” poetry often seems highly learned and intellectual. Donne was himself a highly learned and intellectual man. He...
John Donne
What are some characteristics of the imagery found in John Donne's poetry?
Samuel Johnson said of metaphysical poetry: [In it, t]he most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together Johnson's is an unflattering way of putting it, but Donne's metaphysical imagery...
John Donne
Discuss John Donne as a religious poet.
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...
John Donne
What is an analysis of the poem "Farewell to Love"?
In "A Farewell to Love" the speaker expresses both awareness and remorse at his seemingly insatiable sexual appetite. This dissolute young man appears regretful of the way in which he's worshipped...
John Donne
Analyze the major themes of John Donne's poetry.
Recurring themes are found throughout Donne's work. The younger Donne tended to pose as something of a rake, writing witty poems of satire and seduction. He belongs to the group of poets often...
John Donne
What is a translation of the poem "Air and Angels" by John Donne into modern day English?
I will paraphrase and also provide some possible interpretation of the meaning of Donne's lines in "Air and Angels." The speaker begins: Twice or thrice had I lov'd thee, Before I knew thy face...
John Donne
What is the tone of John Donne's "Meditation 17"?
I would characterize the tone of Donne's famous sermon as expressing a special kind of universality. He makes a calm, sober attempt to unite people—surprisingly, perhaps, not so much to unite them...
John Donne
Can you describe Donne's treatment of love in the poem "The Good Morrow"?
In his poem "The Good Morrow," Donne's main vehicle to describe his vision of love is spatial; he uses many maps, globes, and locations in the poem, and they are his way of understanding the nature...
John Donne
Explain how the sleep metaphor supports a central idea of the poem "Death, be not proud."
John Donne’s poem, “Death, be not proud,” focuses on death as a transitory state between life and what comes after life. In the poem, the speaker personifies and then chastises death, explaining...
John Donne
What are the similarities/differences between Donne's love lyrics and his religious poems?
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...
John Donne
In “Death Be Not Proud”, explain the idea Donne conveys with the line “From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be.”
The speaker of this poem starts right away with a challenge to the power that Death thinks it has. He then goes on in each of three quatrains to give a specific reason why Death should not be so...
John Donne
Please help me with the main theme of "The Sun rising" by John Donne. Or explain and analyze each stanza in it
This poem addresses the sun in a chiding way because the speaker is lying in bed with his love, and the sun is waking them up. He calls the sun a "busy old fool" that is calling to them through the...
John Donne
What is the message John Donne passes to his reader in "Go and Catch a Falling Star"?
In John Donne's song "Go and Catch a Falling Star" the speaker demands many impossible things of the reader. The reader is told to "catch a falling star," bring the past back to the present, and...
John Donne
What is the theme of the poem "Song: Go and catch a falling star" by John Donne?
The poem centers on descriptions of the impossible and fantastic, with the speaker imploring the reader to chase after the impossible, to try and "catch a falling star" and "ride ten thousand days...
John Donne
What is a detailed analysis of the poem ''This Is My Play’s Last Scene'' by John Donne in terms of...
In the opening metaphor of this sonnet, Donne imagines life as a play; as he is now approaching his "last scene," the play—the speaker's life—must soon come to an end. This is a euphemistic way to...
John Donne
Describe John Donne as a metaphysical poet.
Samuel Johnson, who came up with the term "metaphysical" to describe seventeenth-century poets like Donne, stated that in their poems, The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together;...
John Donne
Please explain these lines (or what wind serves to advance an honest mind)
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...
John Donne
What is the NeoPlatonic concept of the link between physical love and spiritual love? Donne's suggestions on the...
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...
John Donne
What is metaphysical poetry? What are its characteristics?
Metaphysical poetry came out of 17th century England. It is characterized by strange conceits (comparisons), images, or paradoxes (seemingly contradictory statements that actually have truth to...
John Donne
How would you summarize John Donne's "Satire 3"?
Donne's "Satire 3" is a characteristically learned and witty meditation on the subject of religion. Religious matters were hugely important in Donne's day, and the question of which religion to...
John Donne
John Donne Explore the role of individual desire in the poetry of John Donne
Here’s how I interpret it: All human beings have lustful desires that need to be quashed. All human beings are inherently sinful, and it is only through vigilance that they avoid sin. There are...
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