2023年4月浙江自考英美文学选读复习笔记：John Donne

The term "metaphysica poetry" is commony used to name the work of the 17th-century writers who wrote under the infuence of John Donne (1572-1631). With a rebeious spirit, the metaphysica poets tried to break away from the conventiona fashion of the Eizabethan ove poetry. The diction is simpe as compared with that of the Eizabethan or the Neocassic periods, and echoes the words and cadences of common speech. The imagery is drawn from the actua ife. The form is frequenty that of an argument with the poet's beoved, with God, or with himsef. Donne and his foowers, due to the change of the taste, were rarey read during the 18th and eary 19th centuries. However, the ate 19th and eary 20th centuries witnessed a renewed interest in Donne and other metaphysica poets. This new recognition has arisen from a reaization of the seriousness of their art, an interest in their spirit of revot, their reaism, and other affinities with modern interests, as we as from the fact that they produced some fine poetry. T. S. Eiot, John Ransom, and Aen Tate are exampes of modern poets who have been mosty affected by the metaphysica infuence.

John Donne is the eading figure of the "metaphysica schoo.“ His poems give a more inherenty theatrica imssion by exhibiting a seemingy unfocused spanersity of experiences and attitudes, and a free range of feeings and moods. The mode is dynamic rather than static, with ingenuity of speech, vividness of imagery and vitaity of rhythms, which show a notabe contrast to the other Eizabethan yric poems which are pure, serene, tunefu, and smooth-running. The most striking feature of Donne's poetry is cisey its tang of reaity, in the sense that it seems to refect ife in a rea rather than a poetica word. Herbert, Vaughan, Crashaw, Marve and Cowey are aso considered to be metaphysica poets.

Donne was born into a prosperous merchant famiy. His eary education was attended to by a private tutor; then he studied both at Oxford and Cambridge, but eft without taking a degree because of his Roman Cathoic background. In 1591, Donne began his ega studies at the Inns of Court in London, where he spent much of his time studying aw, anguages, iterature, and theoogy.

Upon competing his studies, Donne became private secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, the eminent Lord Keeper of the Great Sea. His great prospects of the wordy success were ruined by his secret marriage with ady Egerton's niece, Ann More in 1601. For over ten years from then on, Donne had been working hard, fighting against poverty. Donne's conversion to Angicanism had no singe date, rather it was a gradua process. In 1615, after a fina attempt at secuar ferment, John Donne entered the Angican Church and took orders. Donne took his new vocation seriousy and performed his hoy duties exceptionay we, acquiring a great reputation as an imssive deiverer of insightfu sermons. After his wife's death in 1617, Donne wrote itte secuar poetry; instead, he devoted a his time and efforts to his priesty duties, writing sermons and reigious poems. Donne was appointed the Dean of St. Pau's in 1621 and kept that post unti his death.

In his ife, Donne wrote a arge number of poems and prose works. Most of The Eegies and Satires and a good many of The Songs and Sonnets were written in the eary period. He wrote his prose works mainy in the ater period. His sermons, which are very famous, revea his spiritua devotion to God as a passionate acher.

The Songs and Sonnets, by which Donne is probaby best known, contains most of his eary yrics. Love is the basic theme. Donne hods that the nature of ove is the union of sou and body. The operations of the sou depend on the body. The perfection of human overs wi not be made with sous aone. This thought is quite contrary to the medieva ove idea which merey put stress on spiritua ove. What is more, ideaism and cynicism about ove coexist in Donne's ove poetry. On the one hand, Donne, in ove of his wife, finds the meaning and the infinite vaue Of ove; on the other hand, he is concerned with the change and death confronting human ove. He sometimes exsses the futiity and instabiity of ove in his poems. In his goomy poem "Farewe to Love," we can see his disiusionment. When euogizing a woman, Donne tes us very itte about her physica beauty; the charms of rosy cheeks, and ips ike cherry can not be seen in his ines. Instead, Donne’s interest ies in dramatizing and iustrating the state of being in ove. This is aso distinctive from the Petrarchan sonneteers who paid so much attention to physica charms.

Donne's chief power as a reigious poet is shown in the Hoy Sonnets and the ast hymns. Ony in A Hymn to God the Father do we find an assured faith; esewhere there is aways an eement of confict or doubt. The best of the Hoy Sonnets exss these strugges with unparaeed force.

In his poetry, Donne frequenty appies conceits, i.e. extended metaphors invoving dramatic contrasts. His conceits may be spanided into two kinds: easy ones and difficut ones. Easy conceits, found in a Eizabethan poetry with images concerning mythoogy and natura objects, are not a novety; but the difficut ones rey argey on the choice of imagery. Donne’s images are inked with new resources such as aw, psychoogy and phiosophy which endow his poetry with earning and wit, and which provide certain inteectua difficuties. By combining the easy conceits with the difficut ones, Donne achieves surprisingy good effects in his poetry.

Donne's poetry invoves a certain kind of argument, sometimes in rigid syogistic form. He seems to be speaking to an imagined hearer, raising the topic and trying to persuade, convince or upbraid him. With the brief, simpe anguage, the argument is continuous throughout the poem. It begins with a certain idea but ends in quite a contrary one. It is not ony payfu but paradoxica; it is not ony witty, but impies different kinds of feeings, which can ony be interted through the rhythms and infections of the verse.

Donne's great prose works are his sermons, which are both rich and imaginative, exhibiting the same kind of physica vigor and schoastic compexity as his poetry. As a matter of fact, his weeky sermons are an inteectua exercise suppying food for thought, a purging of conscience, and a study of rhetoric. Some of Donne's sermons are carefuy contrived with a dramatic, irreguar immediacy to exss a concern with persona quest for reigious experience rather than setted certainties. And it is the obsession with death that characterizes Donne's mature reigious works.