unit 1-renaissance-pt-2

The Renaissance

Pt. 1Donne’s

Good Morrow & Holy Sonnet 10

Course Title: Poetry Course Code & NO.: LANE 447Course Credit Hrs.: 3 weekly Level: 7th Level Students

Instructor: Dr. Noora Al-MalkiCredits of images and online content are to their original owners.

This Presentation

• is divided into two sections (Pt. 1 & Pt. 2); each dealing with a poet who represents the English Renaissance (late 15th C. to early 17th C.)

• introduces the Renaissance era (cultural and literary aspects).

• presents a discussion of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 & Donne’s “The Good Morrow” and “Death Be Not Proud”.

Dr. Noora Al-Malki 2012 [email protected] 2

John Donne

3Dr. Noora Al-Malki 2012 [email protected]

(1572-1631)

poet, satirist, lawyer and a preist Metaphysical PoetRebelled against Elizabethan poetryHe wrote religious poetryLove poetrySonnetsSongsSatires His poetry is noted for its language & style

Paradox – irony– metaphysical conceithttp://www.britainexpress.com/History/bio/donne.htm

http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/donnebio.htm

Metaphysical Poetry


Metaphysical poetry deals with human experience as much of the poetry that was written during those times. However, the poets of the era being intelligent and educated meant that the poetry they wrote would tackle the profound areas of experience.

“Metaphysical poems are lyric poems. They are brief but intense meditations, characterized by striking use of wit, irony and wordplay. Beneath the formal structure (of rhyme, metre and stanza) is the underlying (and often hardly less formal) structure of the poem's argument.”

http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/poetry/metaphys.htm

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5662

The Good Morrow


From the Songs and Sonnets collectionYou can find a thorough thematic and stylistic discussion of the poem on this site:The Good Morrow: A Metaphysical Explication

http://gencobb.com/think/literature/poems-reviewed/the-good-morrow-a-metaphysical-explication/

The Good Morrow


I wonder by my troth, what thou, and IDid, till we lov'd? Were we not wean'd till then?But suck'd on countrey pleasures, childishly?Or snorted we in the seaven sleepers den? T'was so; But this, all pleasures fancies bee.If ever any beauty I did see,Which I desir'd, and got, 'twas but a dreame of thee.

Speaker’s state of mindSpeaker’s reflection on that state

The Good Morrow


And now good morrow to our waking soules,Which watch not one another out of feare ;

For love, all love of other sights controules,And makes one little roome, an every where.Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,Let Maps to other, worlds on worlds have showne,Let us possesse one world; each hath one, and is one,.

The Good Morrow


My face in thine eye, thine in mine appeares,And true plaine hearts doe in the faces rest,

Where can we finde two better hemisphearesWithout sharpe North, without declining West?What ever dyes, was not mixed equally;

If our two loves be one, or, thou and ILove so alike, that none doe slacken, none can die.

The Good Morrow


Donne is said to be a metaphysical poet. Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy which deals with any matter beyond that which can be located through the senses; thus time, the mind, free will, God and in this case love, are all subjects of metaphysical thought. The Good Morrow is a prime example of one of Donne's metaphysical poems. In common with other metaphysical verse, The Good Morrow has realistic settings and a metaphysical theme, or rather a theme about transcending from the physical to the metaphysical. The transformation is one concerning love; the poem is about transcending from a physical lust to a higher and refined form of love.

The Good Morrow


The structure of The Good Morrow is based on three interrelated verses. In the first verse, the poet describes the childishness of the previous loves of himself and his lover. In the second, the poet describes how wonderful their new found love is after having been spiritually awakened through each other. In the third verse, the poet describes how this love determines their future together. In other words, Donne has used a chronological structure for this poem; the first verse concerning the past, the second verse concerning the present and the third verse concerning the future. This structure is also implicit in the title of the poem. Throughout the poem we see Donne's unique use of different types of conceit and imagery, from religious imagery to that of sea-discoverers and maps and even of masculinity and femininity.

Death Be Not Proud


Death, be not proud, though some have called theeMighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,And soonest our best men with thee do go,Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;And poppy or charms can make us sleep as wellAnd better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?One short sleep past, we wake eternally,

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die ..

Holy sonnet 10

Death Be Not Proud


To understand the poem, you have to put in mind:

1-Donne had to suffer from a near fatal illnesses which made him approach death and think about it continuously.

2-As a priest, he had, like other men of religion, thoughts on man's mortality and the need to live as free from sin as possible.

3-The Christian teaching on death is that it is not the end of life at all: that there is a resurrection and a judgment, and the life of the Christian believer will continue for eternity. Death, therefore, is seen as a rite of passage to something much better.

Death Be Not Proud


The first quatrain states the theme, with its central paradox that those whom death touches do not really die. That is because of the Christian hope of resurrection and immortality.

The second quatrain takes the idea that sleep and death are allied, one being an image of the other (‘thy pictures’). Sleep is pleasant, therefore death must be, so why fear it? In fact, the best people, that is those who are most pure in their lives, die most quickly, because they know their soul will be ‘delivered’ into a new life.

The third quatrain mocks death. Death is not in control of itself, but has to come wherever there is disease or war. So why is death so proud? Then he argues that opiates mimic death and much more pleasantly.This leads on to the triumphant couplet, that we shall wake into eternal life and death will be finished.

Death Be Not Proud


And God shall wipe awayAll tears from their eyes; andThere shall be no more death,Neither sorrow, nor crying,Neither shall there be any more pain:

For the former things are passed away..

O Death, where is thy Sting?O Death, where is thy victory?

Biblical allusions in “Death Be Not Proud”

unit 1-renaissance-pt-2

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