Renaissance poetry: John Donne

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 6

Which ruler is not associated with Renaissance?

1. Queen Elizabeth I
2. Henry VIII
3. Mary Queen of Scots
4. King Alfred

Which is not associated with Renaissance literature?

1. Metaphysical poetry
2. Geoffrey Chaucer
3. Christopher Marlowe
4. Utopia

Metaphysical poets

• leading figures: John Donne, George Herbert, Andrew Marvell
• wanted to understand the relationships between life, truth and to describe them. 
  
• time, mortality and God are important themes
  
• ultimate message is carpe diem

Metaphysical poetry

• original images and conceits (extended metaphors)
• coarse English combined with lofty, educated language  
• wit and sarcasm
• keen awareness of mortality
• logical argumentation worked out in great detail

John Donne (1572-1631)

• Subjects: mostly love and religion 
  
• Speaker always in the throes of intense emotion
• Emotion is not static but evolves with the turns of thought
• Tells us little to nothing about the loved woman 
• Intricate conceits

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

If they be two, they are two so 

   As stiff twin compasses are two; 

Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show 

   To 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.                                 - John Donne

 

Characteristics of metaphysical poetry

Assignment

Read the two poems in the handout and decide which one is a metaphyiscal poem. Which metaphysical characteristics have you found? Analyse the poem briefly.