English Orals

At the round earth's imagined corners

Background/summary: The speaker is asking for repentance. The speaker is asking for a personal relationship with God. "fire shall" - myth; Ice Age froze over the earth; the next thing to cause a mass extinction will be a fire ... ice then fire. Book of Revelations reference in title. ---- Octet: Lines 1-2: The speaker opens the poem in the imperative mood. He is ordering the angels to blow their trumpets. This signifies the Last Judgement. Lines 2-4: The trumps will awaken the souls of all the dead people, the trumpets will raise the "numberless infinities," from death, and their "souls" will be reunited with their "scattered bodies." Line 5: Biblical allusions to causes of death; "All whom the flood did" - all whom died in Noah's flood; "and fire shall, overthrow" - note the use of the future tense - sinful people will go to Hell after Judgement Day. Lines 6-7: More of the same; "All whom war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies, / Despair, law, chance hath slain," agues refers to a ailment, and dearth refers to a lack; note the striking similarities between this list and the list in Holy Sonnet X (Death, be not proud). Lines 7-9: There is one more category of people that Donne covers - the people who are still alive and will never "taste death's woe" when Judgement Day comes. Those people will not be consumed in the end-of-the-world fires; they are the good people still living when Judgement Day arrives. Recap: Groups that the speaker covered: 1) The people who died in the flood 2) The people who shall be killed by the fire that will consume the Earth on Judgement Day 3) The people who have died since the flood 4) The people that shall be saved. Line 9-10: Sestet. The speaker starts the sestet with a shift/turn ("but"). The speaker's tone changes to contemplative, and he asks the Lord to "let them sleep." The speaker does not want Judgement Day to come after all. "Sleep" is a metaphor for the time between death and resurrection. This harps back to "Death, be not proud," in which the speaker argues that "sleep" is but a transient transitory period between death and resurrection. Lines 10-12: Here the speaker explains why he wants to delay Judgement Day. He uses a verticality metaphor: "For if above all these, my sins abound, / This late to ask abundance of thy grace." If the magnitude and number of my sins exceed those of the dead, then I'm in trouble on Judgement Day. Line 12: Use of caesura; "When we are there. Here on this lowly ground." The speaker uses caesura and creates a hard stop in the middle of the sentence to emphasize the word "there" - there as in Judgement Day. The speaker wants to readers to stop and think too about the implications of being "there" - one had better have a clean slate on Judgement Day - as in no sins. Or one better be a good repenter. Line 13: "Teach me how to repent; for that's as good / As if thou hadst sealed my pardon with thy blood." Use of caesura; emphasis on "repent." The speaker asks God to teach the speaker how to repent, and compares that to God's sealing his pardon. The imagery of the blood is meant to remind us of Jesus' crucifixion. Jesus died for the sins of mankind, and readers are meant to think of Jesus' blood as the speaker's seal of pardon. Ultimately, this poem shows a deep reverence for God; the speaker acts a little rash at first, but then humbly asks God how to repent.

Song: Go and Catch a Falling Star

Background: In this rather cynical poem, the speaker explores the impossibility of finding woman both "true and fair." Stanza 1: Donne lists several impossibilities and paradoxes to set up his argument. He, for example, instructs one to "get with child a mandrake root." A mandrake root is shaped like a bottom half of a person because of its forked root. Despite its superficial resemblance of the human anatomy, it is impossible for a plant root to have a child. Donne also uses a travel conceit in the poem to illustrate the extent to which one must search for such a woman. In the first stanza, he uses the word "wind." In the second stanza, he uses the word "ride" and "return'st." In the third stanza, his travel conceit culminates in his use of the word "pilgrimage" and the fact that a "true and fair" woman has been found. Nevertheless, such a long expedition, so long as to render ones hair "snow white," is fruitless. Donne cynically concludes that "Though she were true, when you met her, and last, till you write your letter, yet she, will be, false." The woman can only remain chaste for the time it takes for one to write a letter - before one is done writing a letter reporting to the speaker the wonderful woman - the woman is already impure. Donne weaves a cynical fairy tale about the impossibility of finding a woman both "true and fair." ---- Structure: Trochaic feet.

The Good-Morrow

Background: One of Donne's love poems, "The Good-Morrow" exemplifies Donne's use of geographic conceits and biblical allusions to describe two lovers' relationship. The poem is divided into three stanzas and develops chronologically, from stanza to stanza. Stanza 1: The speaker alludes to the Seven Sleepers' Den in the first stanza to convey his ignorance of his current lover's beauty. The myth of the Seven Sleepers' Den concerns seven youths who wandered into a cave and fell asleep for centuries before awaking. The speaker also builds upon the allusion to the Den by creating a sleep metaphor in the first stanza: "If any beauty I did see which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee." Stanza 2: It is now morning. The speaker continues his sleep metaphor; he says, "and now good-morrow to our waking souls." The two lovers have escaped their veils of ignorance - the cave - and are waking - as did the seven youths. In the second stanza the speaker also introduces the image of a cordiform map. Stanza 3: Moving from an immediate awareness of each other, the speaker shifts his attention to an outlook of his relationship. In the third stanza, the speaker continues his use of geographic conceits. He asks "Where can we find two better hemispheres, without sharp north, without declining west." He asks where can one find two better lovers. "Whatever dies," he states, "was not mix'd equally. If Our two loves be one, or though and I Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die." ---- Structure: Iambic pentameter. http://gencobb.com/think/literature/poems-reviewed/the-good-morrow-a-metaphysical-explication/ ---- John Donne through the use of various lit techs such as repition, rhetorical questioning and illussions creates an optimistically compassionate mood in his poem The Good-morrow. Though this poem is ambigious in its subject and its narrator the techniques used to write this rather short poem create and undeniably romantic and engaging mood. Donne by posing a variety of rhetorical questions such as,"...were we not weaned til then?" expresses how consumed the narrator is with their relationship and how all events prior to this relationship seem meaningless and unimportant. The connotation of these rhetotrical questions which challenge the value of anytime these two lovers don't spend together contributes to the romantic and engaing mood of this poem because not only do you get a sense of complete hapiness from the narrator because he feels his will defy all time but also because he speaks of the fantastic lengths that their love will overcome and how completely wonderful his relationship is. The repition of the word let by Donne suggests that the narrator is hopeless optimistic in the endless possibilities and capability of his love. This infference can be made because the narrator says,"let maps to others, worlds on worlds have shown,let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one" which means that he feels that their love is something so intense and magical that others may have never expressed its wonders and that they need a map to travel into such a wonderful relationship. This repition also contributes to the romanitc nature of this poem because the narrator, in his extreme infatuation, speaks of him and his lover becoming a single entity and acting as models of the ideal relationship which connotes some sense of insanity in the narrator's mind because he feels as though he and his lover are perfect and that they should serve as inspiration to all people. Like the rhetorical questions and repition the allusion that is made to the Seven Sleeper's in this poem also adds to the optimistic nature of the narrator beacuse he compares them to christians that were protected by God which suggests that he feels that his relationship will be both everlasting and celestially sanctioned.

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning (Incomplete)

Background: Valediction: statement or address made at or as a farewell. Main idea: literally what the title says - the speaker is forbidding the mourning of a loved one. Why? The speaker's love is transcendent - it transcends the physical. ---- Stanza 1: There is this uncertainty in the first stanza. The exact time of death is unknown - "Whilst some of their sad friends do say, "Now his breath goes," and some say, "No." Stanza 2: The speaker uses hyperbole and asks the group of mourners to not make any noise, or "tear-floods," or "sigh-tempests." (Tempests are violent storms). One may ask why the speaker makes such a request. Because such displays of grief are actually a "profanation of our joys / To tell the laity of our love." Here Donne introduces the idea of this kind of transcendent love - their love is not for the "laity," or the rabble. The love between the mourners and the "virtuous men" passing away is transcendent. Stanza 3: Donne notes how the "moving of the earth," or earthquakes, is terrifying. He contrasts earthquakes with the moving of the "spheres," or the planets, and how no one fears the moving of the planets. Stanza 4: Donne directly attacks other peoples' love. "Dull sublunary lovers love," the speaker notes, "whose soul is sense - cannot admit / Of absence, cause it doth remove / the thing which elemented it." In essence, the speaker is saying that conventional love is limited to the physical realm. On the other hand, the love between the private group of mourners and the person passing away is transcendent. It transcends the physical. It is, a love, "so much refined," as Donne says in the fifth stanza. Stanza 5; In the fifth line, Donne further defines his kind of love. His kind of love "care[s] less eyes, lips, and hands to miss." Stanza 6: So death will not do them apart. Their "two souls, therefore, which are one." Their two souls will not endure a "breach, but an expansion, / Like gold to airy thinness beat." The use of gold is significant because gold implies value. Gold is also very malleable, and suitable for the imagery Donne is trying to convey: their souls are expanding, not breaking, and gold can be beat very thin - to foil - and not break. Stanzas 7-9 If their souls are separate, they are like two compasses. The dying person's foot, "the fixed foot, makes no show / To move, but doth, if the other do." The fixed foot "in the center sit." The other foot "obliquely runs," and the fixed foot's "firmness make my circle just" or perfect, and "makes me end, where I begun." The speaker then declares that, since the lovers' two souls are one, his departure will simply expand the area of their unified soul, rather than cause a rift between them. If, however, their souls are "two" instead of "one", they are as the feet of a drafter's compass, connected, with the center foot fixing the orbit of the outer foot and helping it to describe a perfect circle. The compass (the instrument used for drawing circles) is one of Donne's most famous metaphors, and it is the perfect image to encapsulate the values of Donne's spiritual love, which is balanced, symmetrical, intellectual, serious, and beautiful in its polished simplicity. "Circle just" = circle perfect.

Hymn to God, My God, In My Sickness (fill in holes)

Background: Scholars are divided over the question of whether this poem was written on Donne's deathbed in 1630 or during the life-threatening fever he contracted in 1623. In either case, the "Hymn to God my God" was certainly written at a time when Donne believed he was likely to die. This expectation of death is reflected by every facet of the poem - from the tone (morbid) to the subject matter (death). This poem is unified by Donne's geographic conceit. Donne uses a geographic conceit because he lived during the height of England's Age of Exploration; therefore, Donne's contemporary readers may have found Donne's poems easier to understand with the aid of such conceits. Such conceits also add a certain level of sophistication and worldliness to Donne's poetry. Ultimately, this poem is an excellent piece by Donne in which he explores his seemingly imminent death in the rich language and skillful technique ubiquitous of Donne. ---- Line-by-line analysis: Line 1: declarative sentence. Donne is confident that he is "coming to that Holy room," or heaven. Line 4: "at the door." Significance: he is on the verge of death - he is already at heaven's gates. Stanza 2: Here Donne starts his elaborate geographic conceit. He compares his physicians to "cosmographers," or people who study the universe. Donne is "their map," as he "[lies] / Flat on this bed." The conceit gets interesting when Donne mentions his "south-west discovery." This is a reference to the famous contemporary explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, who is best known for attempting to circumnavigate the globe. Unfortunately for Magellan, he died in the Philippines of a fever, but his crew managed to complete the circumnavigation. The idea of a fever is echoed when Donne mentions "per fretum febris" which is Latin for "by the wearing away of a fever. But by far the most interesting part of the second stanza is the last 5 syllables - "by these straits to die." Donne employs a pun on "straits," which can refer to either a narrow body of water or a perilous situation - such as the fever Donne was experiencing. [transition?] Stanza 3: For such a morbid poem, it is somewhat jarring to see the word "joy" be used in the first line of the third stanza: "I joy, that in these straits I see my west." It is more jarring how Donne derives pleasure from "[seeing] his west." As the sun always sets in the west, the west is symbolic of an end, a close to something - such as Donne's life. On the other hand, a more conscientious reader would take into consideration the fact that Donne was brought up in a highly religious Catholic family, and later became an Anglican minister. Perhaps "the west" here is being used here in a more positive way - perhaps Donne "[joys]" in seeing his "west" because he believes in the afterlife - a fundamental tenet of all Christians - Catholic or Anglican. While the sun may set in the west, the sun will eventually rise again. This reading is supported by the rest of stanza 3. Donne acknowledges that "those currents yield return to none." However, Donne asks "What shall my west hurt me?" He reasons "As west and east / In all flat maps - and I am one - are one, / So death doth touch the resurrection." On a flat map, what is at the extreme left is understood to be immediately adjacent to what is one the extreme right. However, Donne is using "west" and "east" in a metaphorical sense here - the "west" is where the sun sets and therefore represents the end, while the "east" is where the sun rises and therefore represents the beginning. From this premise, and the additional premise that Donne is a map, Donne expects readers to derive: "death doth touch the resurrection." [clarify?] [transition?] Stanza 4: In the fourth stanza, Donne asks a series of rhetorical question about his future "home." Home in this context is best understood as "heaven." Donne asks if the "Pacific sea," "eastern riches," or "Jerusalem" will be his home. The significance of the places is important - all are desirable place to be - especially Jerusalem, the "holy city" of Christianity. All three earthly places can be viewed as representative of heaven. There is one caveat though - "Anyan, and Magellan, and Gibraltar [...] / All straits, and none but straits, are ways to them." Donne lists the three narrow bodies of water as necessary obstacles to reach all three of the aforementioned places. In other words, to reach heaven, one must pass through a "strait," or a difficult situation - such as a fever. Japhet, Cham, Shem? Japhet, Cham, and Shem were said to dwell in Europe, Africa, and Asia, respectively. Stanza 5: Second Adam: Jesus Stanza 6: Note the imperative mood of the first line of the last stanza. Donne instructs "So, in His purple wrapp'd, receive me, Lord." Donne has a strong desire to go to heaven. Note the morbid conclusion: "Be this my text, my sermon to mine own, / Therefore that He may raise, the Lord throws down." Concluding with a paradox is a motif in Donne's poetry; we can see the same technique in "Death be not proud." ---- Structure: Iambic pentameter quintrains :).

A Hymn to God the Father (OK)

Background: This poem was written fairly late in Donne's life, when he was an Anglican minister. This poem revolves around Donne's quest of finding forgiveness from God. Characteristically, Donne employs puns and various allusions in this poem. The salient thing about this poem is that it proclaims Donne's unwavering belief in God - despite all of Donne's sins, which are thoroughly enumerated in this poem, "A Hymn to God the Father" resolves with Donne confident about earning God's grace. Stanza 1: Donne starts with a rhetorical question - "Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun, / Which was my sin, though it were done before." This is a reference to the Original Sin - the one that Eve committed by eating the forbidden apple. He asks for God to forgive Donne for the Original Sin. But even "when [God] hast done, [he] / hast not done, / For I have more." Even when God has finishing forgiving, God still does not have John Donne. And God still "hast not done"; God still has not finished. John Donne has "more" sins - this could be a play on Anne More's name - Anne More was the woman Donne married covertly. This incident, which ran contrary to More's father's wishes, landed Donne in jail for a while. Donne may be referring to this incident as a sin here. Stanza 2: The opening of stanza 2 is parallel to the opening of stanza 1. Donne further asks God to forgive Donne of causing others to sin - "that sin which I have won / Others to sin, and made my sin / their door?" Donne also asks God to forgive Donne of "that sin which I / did shun / A year or two, but wallowed in a / score?" Donne repudiated "that sin," but was unfortunately reverted to his old ways after a "score," or 20 years. Even after dispensing all his mercy, God still "hast not done." The main purpose of stanza 2 is to enumerate the various sins that Donne has committed; stanza 2 can be seen as something of a confessional. Stanza 3: Stanza 3, as opposed to stanza 2, can be viewed as a testimonial - to God's grace. Donne, in stanza 3, confesses that he has a "sin of fear" - he is guilty of doubting God's grace. He also employs a thread/string metaphor and alludes to the Three Fates - figures of Greek mythology. When Donne says he has "spun / My last thread," he is alluding to the Greek view that one's life was a thread. Donne here is implying that he has reached the end of his life, and he is desperate for forgiveness so he can ascend to Heaven. This notion is reinforced when Donne says he fears that he "shall perish on the shore." The implied opposition is getting across the shore - or on a metaphorical level - Donne is afraid he will not be qualified to enter Heaven. Donne proceeds to ask that at his death for "Thy Son," or Jesus, to "shine as he shines now." Donne employs a pun on the homonyms "son" as in child and "sun" as in Helios. And if Jesus "shines" at Donne's death, then "Thou / has done." God will have finished forgiving Donne, and therefore God will have Donne in Heaven. ---- Conclusion: In essence, this is a rather witty poem in which Donne admits his flaws and sins but also reaffirms his faith in God, which is definitely a common thread in Donne's poetry.

The Apparition

Glossary Solicitation - pleading Taper - candle Quicksilver - mercury Aspen - a pale tree Overall explanation This poem explores the emotions of a jilted lover, rejected for someone who, in the eyes of the writer, is obviously inferior. For convenience, I will refer to the "I" of the poem as "he" and the subject as "she". Although many poems have been written about rejection, most of them end with the lover pleading with the loved to accept him again. However, in this poem, that idea has been turned upside down - by the end he is not pleading to be welcomed back into the arms of his beloved, but is in fact gloating - she made a bad decision, and now she has to live with it! Poetic Devices Direct address: When by thy scorne... No conceits used. Although this is a lack of a device rather than an actual device, it is important to note that this poem is different to a majority of Donne's poetry in that it uses none of the extended metaphors known as conceits. Metaphors are used (Aspen wretch , etc), but they never extend beyond one line of the poem. Movement Within the Poem Over the course of the poem the tension is built up steadily, but there is a dramatic change in the last four lines, where the tension is held but the poem becomes reflective rather than vituperative[aggressive and cursing]. Imagery / References to Donne's learning Religious imagery: fain'd vestall - ie, feigned virginity painfully repent Cold quicksilver sweat - the reference to quicksilver (another name for mercury) implies coldness, creates the image of moonlight shining silver on sweat-bathed skin, and (unverified) was once thought a cure for veneral disease. Apsen wretch - "Aspen" implies coldness and frigidity. My ghost - realise that this ghost does not necessarily need to be "real" - it could quite possibly be the woman's conscience which has come to haunt her. His triumph at the end is that the woman will never know. Generally Highly melodramatic: In the first line, he is killed by her scorn, for example. He clearly demonstrates the inadequacy of her new lover, both sexually and emotionally: Will... think thou call'st for more, and in false sleepe will from thee shrinke..." : Not only is the lover too tired for any more, but he is unwilling to listen to her problems. The traditional "jilted lover" poem is turned on its head here: I'had rather thou shouldst painfully repent.... Or is it? The irony is that the the male, if his love really WAS spent, would not waste time cursing his ex-lover and her new boyfriend. A veryer ghost than I - ie, she will finally understand how he feels, to be rejected in such a way. Note also that there is only one stanza. Unlike other Donne poems, which mix emotion with rational thought, this is a rush of almost pure emotion. ---- Stanza 1: The tone of this poem is bitter - it's vituperative. It's a far cry from the playful, almost flippant tone that characterizes much of Donne's other poetry. In the first line of the poem, the speaker employs a pun. He refers to his former lover as a "murdresse," playing with the idea that the woman is a "mistress." The pom develops chronologically. After the speaker is killed by the "murdresse," the speaker's ghost arrives at the woman's bed, or the "fain'd vestall's" bed. Vestal means virgin, and feigned means fake. The speaker suggests that the woman is faking her virginity: she's not pure, but corrupted. The speaker's vituperative tone is developed through his diction: "feigned vestal" is not a compliment. Now that the ghost has arrived, the candles begin to flicker, or "wink." The woman tries to seek help from her current lover, but the current lover will "think [she's] calling for more, and in false sleepe will from thee shrinke." The speaker implies the inadequacy of the woman - both sexually and emotionally. The man won't even bother to listen to the woman's problems. The speaker also calls the woman an "aspen wretch." Aspen refers to aspen trees. Aspen trees are all native to cold regions, so by using "Aspen," the speaker implies that the woman is cold, frigid, perhaps devoid of emotion and true love. A "wretch" is simply a despicable person. Again, we see how Donne's diction contributes to the acerbic tone. The speaker continues the idea of frigidity in the next line, mentioning that the woman is "bathed in a cold quicksilver sweat." The use of "quicksilver," or mercury, is significant. Mercury tends to form little beads, so it symbolizes the beads of sweat on the woman's skin. The last four lines of the poem turn reflective. The speaker contemplates whether to tell the lover what he wants to say. The speaker also wants the woman to "painfully repent."

The Sun Rising (weak)

Introduction: In this classic love poem by John Donne, the speaker simultaneously chides the rising Sun while putting his relationship on a pedestal. "Every insult to the sun is a complement to the speaker's lover." Stanza 1: Donne employs both apostrophe and rhetorical questions in the first stanza, as the speaker asks the "unruly Sun" why it is calling on the speaker and his lover. The tone developed in the first stanza is flippant - Donne refers to the Sun as a "saucy pedantic wretch," and instructs it, among other things, to "chide late school-boys and sour prentices." Stanza 2: The most notable aspect of the second stanza is how the speaker uses his vituperative diatribe against the Sun as a springboard for flattering his lover. The speaker tells the Sun that although its beams are so "reverend, and strong," he "could eclipse and cloud them with a wink." The problem with that is the speaker would lose sight of his lover for a moment. And as if that were not enough, the speaker continues to praise his lover's eyes as blindingly beautiful - "If her eyes have not blinded thine." Using the imperative, the speaker commands the sun to "look, and tomorrow late tell me, whether both the Indias of spice and mine be where thou left'st them, or lie here with me. Ask for those kings whom thou saw'st yesterday, and thou shalt hear, 'All here in one bed lay.'" In essence, the speaker says that he and his lover are so great that they are comparable in greatness to the exotic Indias and kings. This geographic conceit continues to the next stanza. Stanza 3: ---- Third-party analysis: Stanza 1 unruly Sunne - the poet has been woken by the Sun. Donne shocks from the start - the first line conveys arrogance and rudeness, but it is directed at the Sun. sowre - bad-tempered. In these few lines Donne puts the sun in its place - its job is with the boring, bad-tempered, ordinary people, not with the lovers. Note that the lovers are already at a celestial level at this stage - they are above the "countrey ants" the poet refers to. Stanza 2 There is a change of attitude in this stanza. Wheres in stanza 1 Donne was annoyed and arrogant, now he gets insulting and grandiose. He attacks the popular notion of the strong, powerful sunshine by pointing out that he can cut the Sun out of his life merely by closing his eyes. However, even with this arrogance, he is forced to admit that without the Sun, he would not be able to see his lover. And here his attitude begins to change again - through the rest of the stanza it becomes less antagonistic towards the Sun and more complimentary to his lover and their situation together. ...and tomorrow late... - a very unsubtle hint that the Sun gets up too early. the India's of Spice and Myne - ie, the East and West Indias. This is the beginning of a conceit that lasts the rest of the poem - Donne and his lover, and the room they are in, expand to become the whole world - at least, they have by the last stanza. In these two lines Donne says his lover is the East and West Indias - in Donne's day, the source of the world's most precious materials: spices, metals, and jewels. Stanza 3 The conceit continues. The first two lines imply that the lovers are every country, every where. There is also "conqueror / conquered" imagery here - where the Prince has completely control of his country, and the country submits to him. Princes doe but play us...All wealth alchimie - Everything is false, apart from Donne and his lover. Thine age askes ease... - the tone is arrogant but playful. Donne decides that the Sun must be tired continually journeying around the world - and since the rest of the world is false, there's really no need to. To illuminate the only true, real world, the Sun need only shine in the room containing Donne and his lover. Poetically Direct address is used, as is common in Donne poetry, in the first stanza. Conceits used: Lover's bedroom becomes the world: This bed thy center is, these walls, thy spheare Imagery and Learning India's of Spice and Myne Use of Sun-related imagery General Notes Reuses the notion of "Hundreds of Petrachan and Elizabethan poems" that the "Sun is the touchstone of ecstatic tribute" "The exaggeration of language mimics the assurance of love" "Every insult to the Sun is a compliment to his mistress." Note the movement of the poem. In Stanza 1, Love and the Sun are separate. By Stanza 3, Donne has joined the two - love and the Sun are one and the same. The poem also becomes more intellectual as it advances - possibly as the speaker and his lover wake up! However, this "intellectuality" also, ironically, takes the poem from the plausible to the ridiculous. A simple way to examine the movement of this poem is to examine the first lines of each stanza. Busie olde foole, unruly Sunne Thy beames, so reverend and strong, Why should'st thou thinke? She'is all States, and all Princes, I Note the constant use of Sun-related imagery: "Eclipse and cloud" in stanza 2, "these walls, thy spheare" in Stanza 3. The "spheare" is significant - circles and spheares were considered the perfect shapes. By the last word of the last stanza, Donne, his love, and the Sun are united. There is a very sensual aspect to this poem: the glow of the sun, the extremes of conceit, perhaps an element of a sexual boast with "All here in one bed lay" in stanza 2. ---- Structure:

Pyrrhic

Metrical foot consisting of two unaccented, short syllables.

Trochee

Metrical foot in used poetry in which a stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed one.

Love's Deity

Stanza 1: The speaker blames the "god of love" for making the speaker love one that does not reciprocate the love - "But since this god produced a destiny [...] I must love her that loves not me." The speaker blames Cupid as having "sunk so low" that the speaker has to "love one which did scorn." "I must love her that loves me not." This is the central conflict of the poem: unreciprocated love. The speaker blames this on Cupid. Stanza 2: The speaker lambastes the "god of love" for fitting "actives to passives," instead of putting "even flame[s]" together. "Correspondency / Only his subject was." Correspondency is NOT Cupid's current subject. Cupid does not currently match two compatible lovers. Stanza 3: The speaker launches a vituperative diatribe against the "god of love." He bitterly scorns the god's "tryanny" and wishes to "ungod this child again." Why? "It could not be, I should love her, who loves not me." The speaker is referring to Cupid; Cupid is a child and he is the god of love. Purlieu refers to the outlying areas of a district or territory; the speaker sues purlieu to signify "every modern god['s]" power and "prerogative." The speaker reiterates his main idea in the last lines of each stanza: "it could not be / I should love her who loves not me." Stanza 4: The speaker ironically fits actives and passives together himself, referring to himself as a "rebel and atheist." A rebel has passionate beliefs. An atheist has no belief in God. The speaker contemplates that there are worse things than unreciprocated love: 1) False love - "Falsehood is worse than hate." Contrast this with The Indifferent, in which Donne glorifies "love's sweetest part, variety." ---- Structure: Written in iambic pentameter. Trochee in line 4. Indicates that something is wrong ... the god has "sunk so low as to love one which did scorn" Trochee in line 12. "Actives to passives. Correspondency." The harmonic dissonance reflects the conflicted union of "actives to passives." Trochee in first line of last stanza: "Rebel and atheist." ---- Donne through the use of various literary techniques such as diction, cataloging, and apostrophe, creates a sympathetic mood in his poem "Love's Deity" The diction of the words used by Donne suggest that the speaker, knowing that the woman he loves will not reciprocate his feelings for her is devastated and communicates his depression through his word choice. The word sunk used in the first stanza alludes to how lowly, depressed, and pathetic the speaker feels having to love someone who doesn't love him back. This feeling continues to be presented through the usage of phrases such as, "produced destiny" and "I must love her" which suggest that the speaker though disheartened by his lover's response, cannot cease to lover her which makes depresses him even more. The diction of these phrases more than any other used in the first stanza contributed to the sympathetic mood because knowing that the speaker is at the mercy of Love's deity who refuses to let him stop loving this woman. In the second and third stanza, the naïve and foolish connotations associated with the words, "young" and "child" which are used to describe love's deity implies that the deity is inexperienced, inconsiderate, and foolish when making people's romantic destinies. These implication much like that of the phrases in the first stanza paint the speaker as victim who you can't help but to sympathize with. The use of an apostrophe in the third stanza suggests that being in love with someone who does not love him has driven the narrator mad and to the point where he is speaking to Love's deity who is neither present nor an actual being who he can speak with. This also implies that the actions of this deity are so extreme and unjust that they have compelled the author to verbalize his frustrated because the pain that he has to bear while loving this woman can no longer be contained. In the fifth and sixth lines of the third stanza wherein the apostrophe occurs the speaker evokes sympathy through this tool because he continues and says, "to ungod this child again" which is a ridiculous statement because it is impossible for the speaker to physically "ungod" Love's deity because he is only human. It is this conclusion of the speaker's mortal state that creates some form of pity and sympathy toward his powerlessness because we have all felt as though we had no control over who we loved at one point in our lives. Another literary technique used by Donne that establishes the mood of sympathy is that of divine imagery because it transform love into something that is uncontrollable and vicious in a sense. The continual reference to "Love's Deity' and also the allusion to roman mythology create the sympathetic mood because once again the speaker is at the mercy of beings who he can never influence and so must live with his fate. Donne, in this poem, through the use of diction,apostrophe and divine imagery creates and fantastically emotional poem that evokes feelings of sympathy while having various tones which resemble those seen in the stages of grief, giving new meaning to the traditional definition of romantic poetry.

Death, be not proud

Structure: Iambic pentameter. But note how the first line starts off on an accented beat: "Death, be not proud, though some have called thee." This, combined with the speaker's use of apostrophe and the imperative, sends a ringing message to "death," which is continually assailed by the speaker throughout the poem. Mix of English and Italian sonnets. The rhyme scheme is Italian, but the ideas are organized into quatrains. Weak end rhyme: perhaps the weak end rhyme signifies the weakness of the speaker's argument. Analysis: The speaker's purpose in Death be not proud is twofold. The speaker wishes to prove that death is not "mighty and dreadful." The speaker also attempts to mollify readers' fears about death. The speaker uses apostrophe in the poem to address death more directly. The speaker does not wish to lecture about death; the speaker wishes to speak to death, and in speaking to death, the speaker affects a haughty, cavalier, and condescending tone. It is also important to note the speaker's use of apostrophe because the speaker will use personal pronouns - i.e. thou - to refer to death. In the first quatrain of this mixed English/Italian sonnet, the speaker assuages readers' fears by directly addressing the opposition: the speaker states that "for, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow, / Die not, poore death, nor canst thou kill me." In the second quatrain, the speaker introduces the Renaissance notion that sleep is death's image. "From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee." On this superficial resemblance, the speaker reasons that "much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow." Because we derive pleasure from sleep, death's image or copy, we must derive even more pleasure from death, the real thing. In addition, the speaker attempts to further alleviate readers' concerns about death by claiming that "and sonnest our best men with thee doe go." The most virtuous men go easily with death, so laymen should have nothing to fear. The speaker here is playing with the virtue by association idea (logically fallacious and ultimately sophistic but fits in the grand scheme of Donne's poems - i.e. "The Flea" and serves the purpose of backing the speaker's argument). In the next line, the speaker introduces an interesting pun on the word "delivery." The speaker remarks that the souls of the best men are "delivered." Delivery can be mean that their souls are delivered to heaven. Delivery can also refer to birth. Both senses of the word "deliver" make sense in the poem, and the second sense adds meaning: the soul is "reborn" after one dies; one may be endowed with an eternal afterlife. The pun also foreshadows the speaker's conclusion about death ... In the third quatrain the speaker starts to outright debase death as a "slave." The implication here is that death has no free will - death is subordinate - subordinate to "Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men." Death is merely the outcome of random occurrences, kings exercising their prerogatives or desperate men taking their own or other peoples' lives. If anything, the speaker implies, we should not fear death but the agents of death - such as "fate" or "chance." Further debasing death, the speaker says that death resides or "dwells" with such atrocities as "poison, war, and sickness." Returning to his idea that sleep is death's image, the speaker says that "poppie, or charms can make us sleep as well." Poppie refers to opiates and charms may refer to magic or sleeping aids of some sort (Ambien in the 17th century). Wait: poppie and charms can make us sleep "better than thy stroke." Poppie and charms induce a sleep even better than death, and the speaker soon explains why this is the case. In the same line, we also see the effect of apostrophe: the speaker asks death "why swell'st thou then," disparaging it as full of hubris. The image used is that of a chest swelling with pride. The speaker's argument culminates in the final two lines: "One short sleep past, we wake eternally." Now we see why poppie and charms can make us sleep better than death's stroke: death is transient, ephemeral, and only happens once. On the other hand, poppie and charms induce a much stronger and lasting sleep and can be used to induce multiple slumbers. Donne concludes with a characteristic paradox: "Death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die." Here we see the speaker use apostrophe to is fullest; having anthropomorphizing death earlier, the speaker is able to give death one last verbal beat down, saying that death itself shall die. In essence, the last line relies on a Christian premise, which is not unexpected, given that Donne was an Anglican preacher and grew up in a deeply religious family. The speaker says that death vanquishes itself because death is just a "short sleep" - a transitory period - in between life and the eternal afterlife that all repentant Christians are granted. BOOM!

The Triple Fool (?)

Summary: The poet is a fool for: 1) Loving 2) Telling of his love through "whining poetry" 3) Thinking that poetry could mollify his grief. However, whenever a person sings Donne's poem, thereby delighting many, the singer also "frees again / Grief, which verse did restrain." He is a third fool for thinking himself wise and sharing his grief. Stanza 1: The speaker is two fools for: 1) Loving 2) For telling of his love in "whining poetry" Metaphor: It was thought that salt was purged from the "narrow crooked lanes" of water as they made their way inland through the marshes, thereby creating fresh water rivers. Donne similarly thought that through verse, or "rhyme's vexations," he could "allay" his own grief. "Grief brought to numbers cannot be so fierce, / For he tames it that fetters it in verse." Shift/turn: "But" ... "but when I have done so, / Some man, his art and voice to show, / Doth set and sing my pain, / And by delighting many, frees again, / Grief, which verse did restrain. The speaker hoped to trap his grief in verse, but each time someone sings his poetry (poetry was meant to be sung) - the grief is unrestrained. "And both are increased by such songs." Therefore, the speaker is three fools, for thinking that poetry could mollify or allay or assuage his grief. Yet, the speaker is "a little wise, the best fools be." The best fools are the ones who are only a little wise. The best fools - the easiest to deceive - are only a little wise - and do not realize the extent of their knowledge. Contrast this with the speaker, who goes through a learning experience in this poem and learns that even poetry cannot forever restrain his grief. He has been made a fool three times, but each time, he learns a little more. http://pristinemadness.com/files/triple_fool.html

The Indifferent (!)

Tone: flippant Structure: 9-line stanzas; mostly trochees (first syllable emphasized, then unstressed syllable). Stanza 1: Caesura: allows the reader to pause and contemplate what is being said by the speaker ... Personal pronouns in line 8: "I can love [...] you, and you." Direct address to the reader. End stopped lines: allow the reader to contemplate what is being said in each line ... some pretty shocking stuff .... "I can love any, so she be not true." (caesura and enjambment). Stanza 2; Rhetorical questions. Must I be true simply because you are true? Stanza 3: "love's sweetest part, variety." Reference to Venus, goddess of love. Contrary to Donne's Christian values. "dangerous constancy" ---- Tone: comical; cynical Indifferent: without difference in inclination Adjective: libertine Mocks faithfulness. Stanza 1: Stanza 1 is a boast. Directly states thesis: "I can love both fair and brown." Use of parallelism: "Her whom ... Her who ..." Use of personal pronoun "you" to denote the variety of the speaker's love. Note the end-stopped lines; Donne wants the readers to stop and contemplate what he said. In the last line of the first stanza, the speaker employs caesura, first stating the forgone conclusion that he "can love any." In the second half of the last line, the speaker shockingly reveals he can love any woman, so "she be not true." Stanza 2: Stanza 2 is a dialogue (note the quotation marks) between the speaker and woman. The speaker employs rhetorical questions, a typical feature of Donne's poetry. "Rob me" - refers to the Renaissance belief that sexual intercourse shortened one's lifespan. "Bind me not" - do not tie me down; I do not want to be faithful. "Must I, who came to travail thorough you, / Grow your fixed subject because you are true?" Phallic imagery; "grow." Stanza 3: Shift to past tense. The speaker invokes Venus, the goddess of love. This is contrary to Donne's Christian values. Nevertheless, this is a common feature of Donne's poetry (using pagan gods). Venus has never heard of "love's sweetest part, variety," but swears that she will examine the speaker's case. After speaking to a couple of lovers, she concludes that constancy is dangerous. To rectify this situation, Venus proclaimed "Since you will be true, / You shall be true to them who are false to you." ---- The poet John Donne wrote "The Indifferent." According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "indifferent" means without difference of inclination to prefer one person to another, unbiased and disinterested. The poem was published posthumous in 1633. This love poem is a simple comical and cynical, ironic piece not requiring explication. According to the poet this poem presents a fact of life: persons who will insist on being "true" in their love-sex relationships are destined to be so in all cases to persons who will repay their constancy with falseness. According to Clay Hunt, "['The Indifferent'] is probably an early poem because of the simplicity and obviousness of its literary methods, its untroubled gaiety, and its pose of libertinism, which all suggest that Donne wrote [the poem] when he was a young man about town in Elizabethan London" (1-2). The poem mocks the Petrarchan doctrine of eternal faithfulness, putting in its place the anti-morality which argues that constancy is a heresy and that "Love's sweetest part" is "variety" (20). In the first stanza, the poet is "boasting to a group of women of his sexual prowess." [1] In the second stanza, the poem is "essentially a psychodrama" in which the poet "reenacts a former squabble with a possessive woman." [2] In the first two stanzas, the speaker talks to an audience of people in present tense. However, in the third stanza, the diction is in the past tense, and the speaker references the first two stanzas as a "song" (19). Although most of the sonnets lines do represent the standard iambic pentameter which is the base, the poem's form does fluctuates in both stress patterns and number of metrical feet per line. The stress patterns do vary from the standard iambic to trochee, spondee, anapest and dactyl. The variation of stress patterns is done purposely to highlight the reading of that specific portion. The metrical feet vary from a tetrameter to a heptameter, from four to seven feet, respectively. The variation of metrical feet calls the reader to attention. In stanza one, the metrical feet is 4, 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5. Stanza two has metrical feet of 4, 5, 7, 5, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5. While stanza three has metrical feet of 4, 6, 6, 5, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6. The stress patterns and number of metrical feet per line do vary, but the rhyming scheme is consistent in each stanza of ABBACCCDD. The variation of stress patterns in the first stanza includes line one which consists of all trochees to gain the readers attention, a call to order. As well, line eight consists of all trochees. However, in line nine, there are three trochees, an anapest and iamb. While the trochees are usually used to highlight, an anapest is normally used to lull the reader into pacifism before the punch. The variations in the second stanza includes line thirteen, the poet provides another variation of four iambs, one trochee and a spondee. That variation highlights the phrase "torment you" (13). Another variation is presented in line eighteen, which has a trochee, spondee, dactyl, trochee and spondee, line eighteen with those variations screams to the reader to pay attention. Line eighteen reads, "Grow your fixt subject, because you are true?" In the final stanza, line nineteen consists of trochees. The poet completes the sonnet in lines twenty seven with a rather simple adjustment to form of three iambs, two trochees and one spondee. However, the concluding couplet is further highlighted by the change in position of the rhyming pattern you and true which are juxtaposed indicative of backward pointing, or in this case past tense. In the first stanza, the poet is an active participant in this poem, and introduces his beloved: "I can love both faire and bowne," I can love both blonds and brunettes, who was cursed to work through Eve's fall (1). "Her whom abundance melts," the woman dissolve and dissipates, more than enough of the good things of life, including superfluity (2). "Her whom want betraies," her who sells herself for money, who was born through woman's labor pains (2), "Her who loves lonenesse best," her who loves to be alone best (3), "Her who maskes and plaies" her who bewilders and wounds, who has pased form one affair to another (3), "Her whom the country form'd, and whom the town," her whom the country and town shaped, fashioned and molded, who has been a tourist through your country (body) (4). "Her who beleeves, and her who tries," her who trusts her lover, and her who tests him (5), "Her who still weeps with spungie eyes," her who does not weep with soft eyes (6), "And her who is dry corke, and never cries," and her who is arid impermeability bark of cork-oak, "and never cries" (7), "I can love her, and her, and you and you (8), "I can love any, so she be not true," the poet can love anyone, so she does not represent true love (9). In the second stanza, the poet asks "Will no other vice content you," will only truth satisfy you so as to stop complaint? (10) "Wil it not serve your turn to do, as did your mothers," will it not serve your course of action to do, as your mother did? (11) That statement has sexual connotations in the form of action. "Or have you all old vices spent," or have you expended and consumed all your evil and immoral habits and conduct, indulgence in degrading pleasures or practices that have been relatively long in use and now worn with age, decay and deterioration? (12) "And now would finde out others," and now would you find some other vices? (12) "Or doth a feare," or does a mate, "that men are true," that is true, "torment you?" (13) "Oh we are not," oh we men are not true, "be not you so," so do not be true either (14). "Let mee, and doe you, twenty know," let me have sex with our twenty times (15). "Rob mee," refers to the belief that sexual intercourse shortened the length of life, "but binde me not," don't tie me down, "and let me goe," and let me leave when I am sexually satisfied (16). "Must I, who came to travaile thorow you," must I, who has come to perform labor and service to that pipe and channel of yours, who was cursed to work through Eve's fall, who was born through woman's labor pains, who has passed from one affair to another, who has been a tourist through your body (17). The last reference to having been a tourist through her body contrasts in the next line when he protest becoming woman's "fixt subject" (18). "Grow your fixt subject," grow your penis, "because you are true? (18) The poet speaks to his penis as though a second person. However, he is speaking of his own penis. The third and final stanza the speaker speaks of "Venus heard me sigh this song," the ancient Roman goddess of beauty and love, more specifically sensual love heard me express this desire by the utterance of sigh, wish or long ardently for this song (19). "And by Loves sweetest Part," the parting of the vagina, "Variety," the number of different partners, "she swore," she proclaimed and declared with an oath of solemn affirmation (20). "She heard not his till now," she didn't hear my song until now; "and that it should be so no more," and that the song's desire shall be satisfied (21). "She went, examin'ed, and return'd ere long," she left, interrogated and formally, question, and returned before long (22). "And said, alas, Some two or three," and with an exclamation expressive of unhappiness, sorrow and concern said, there are an indeterminate quantity of two maybe three (23), "Poore Heretiques in love there bee," not mixed or adulterated, refined persons proposing some unorthodox change to an established system of belief (24). The Heretics "thinke to stablish dangerous constancie," think to place or set firmly in position a dangerous state of being unmoved in mind, steadfast and firm with fortitude (25). "But I have told them," but I have told the heretics, "since you will be true" (26), "You shall be true to them, who' are false to you" (27). ---- Structure: 3 stanzas of 9 lines.